[Verse 1]
Alarm at five
coffee in a chipped red mug
Snow piling on the porch
boots by the rug
High chair crumbs
cartoons glow in the dark
I’m tying tiny little laces
with these cold red knuckles and heart
Diapers in the trash
rent on the table
Text from my boss
“need you soon as you able”
But daycare don’t open
’til quarter to eight
So I’m flipping frozen waffles
like I’m flipping my fate
Baby in the backseat
singing at the sky
Fog on the harbor
lobster boats slide by
I kiss him on the cheek
say “I’ll be back at three”
He grabs my sleeve
like he scared I’ll leave
that hits deep in me
[Chorus]
I’m just a kid from Maine
tryna raise my own
Shovel out the driveway
build a little home
Hands stay cold
but my hope stay hot
Single dad life
this the best shot I got
I’m just a kid from Maine
tryna do this right
Long dark winters
still I find my light
Whatever I lose
he the one thing I got
Single dad heart
this the best shot I got (yeah)
[Verse 2]
Court dates, bus rides
hand-me-down coat
Judge readin’ papers
like my life just notes
Mom dipped out
left a box and a name
I grew up on mac and cheese
and video games
Now it’s bibs on the chair
bills in a stack
I stretch every dollar
’til the numbers crack
Got my cousin watchin’ him
when I’m stocking at the store
I come home sore
but I’m rich on the floor
We build towers with blocks
laugh when they fall
He points at my phone
“Dada, that you when you small?”
I say “yeah, I was scared
I ain’t know what I’d be”
Now I’m folding little shirts
like a promise to me
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
Some nights I break down
in that one-room place
Hot plate hissin’
tears on my face
Ask the ceiling
“can I really be enough?”
Then he crawls on my chest
and that answer show up
We watch gulls chase boats
from the laundromat pane
Salt in the wind
hope in my veins
I ain’t got much
but I got this chance
So I rock him to sleep
in these thrift-store pants
[Chorus]