Dad's song

He has calloused hands and steady ways

Built a quiet life in honest ways

I was wild, didn’t see the cost

of all the chances I threw away and lost

But he never turns away from me

Even when I make it hard to see

He works like a man who has no time to waste

While I ran wild, always out of place

He'll show up every day, no matter how hard

Nose to that stone grinding it hard.

But now I see it clearer than I ever did

The kind of life he built, the man he is

Born to dirt, raised in a basement home

Seven kids, barely enough to get by on their own

But he promised himself, no matter the cost

That his own kids would never feel that loss

He worked through the pain, the sweat, the strain

To give us a life free from that chain

He carries weight I couldn’t hold

In silence, in sweat, in winters cold

I thought I was tough till I saw his scars

Earned not from fists, but from working hard

He’s a damn good dad, carved out of grit

And I just wish I was more like it

I made noise, he made a life

Held it steady for the kids and wife

I’m just now learning what that means

The cost of pride, the weight of dreams

Some men speak with hands, not words

Their kindness lives in things unheard

Now I carry his quiet grace

In every step I try to retrace

Yeah, he’s a damn good dad—solid as they come

While I’m still chasing the man I should become