Verse 1
I learned how to stay quiet before I learned how to read,
Watched my mama chase demons in orange bottles she would bleed.
Ashtray on the counter, smoke hanging in the air,
Empty cabinets rattling while she swore she'd always care.
Food stamps turned to cigarette burns,
Traded for pills while my stomach churned.
I counted loose change for another meal,
Growing up too fast never felt so real.
Pre-Chorus
And every grown-up looked away,
Like they couldn't hear me scream.
I was just a little girl
Holding together broken things.
Chorus
So I carved my pain into my skin,
Trying to let the hurt crawl out.
Every scar a conversation
Nobody wanted to talk about.
I was drowning in a house on fire,
Breathing smoke nobody could see.
Mama was chasing another high,
And the world forgot about me.
Yeah, the world forgot about me.
Verse 2
Blue lights flashing through the window glass,
The longest night of my whole damn life.
Mama hit the floor and wouldn't move,
I was shaking while I grabbed the knife—
Cut the panic from my throat somehow,
Dialed 911 with trembling hands.
No one else was there to save her,
No one else could understand.
"Please hurry," was all I said,
While tears mixed with the words I bled.
A child praying to a stranger's voice,
Being brave wasn't really a choice.
Pre-Chorus
The sirens sang like funeral hymns,
The walls closed in around my chest.
And part of me was terrified,
Part of me was just exhausted.
Chorus
So I carved my pain into my skin,
Trying to let the hurt crawl out.
Every scar a conversation
Nobody wanted to talk about.
I was drowning in a house on fire,
Breathing smoke nobody could see.
Mama was chasing another high,
And the world forgot about me.
Yeah, the world forgot about me.
Bridge
I'm angry at the pills.
Angry at the smoke.
Angry at the hunger and every promise broke.
Angry at the silence.
Angry at the lies.
Angry that a little girl had to watch her mother die—
Or almost die.
Angry that the people who should've helped were gone.
Angry that survival became the thing I built upon.
Breakdown
But I'm still here.
Still breathing.
Still screaming.
Still standing where the wreckage used to be.
You sold our food for another fix,
But you never sold the fight out of me.
Final Chorus
I carved my pain into my skin,
But those scars don't own my name.
They're just proof I walked through hell
And somehow walked out of the flames.
I was the girl who made that call,
The girl nobody came to save.
Now I'm building something stronger
From every ghost and every grave.
And though the ashes still fall around me,
They don't bury me beneath.
Because the little girl you left behind
Finally learned how to breathe.
Outro
The sirens faded.
The smoke cleared slow.
And that little girl grew up carrying things
No child should ever know.
But she's still here.
Still here.
