[Verse 1]
You said you were joking
I laughed so you’d stop
Plate on the table
My heart on the chopping block
You never learned listening
You only learned loud
I memorized footsteps
Just to disappear in the crowd
[Chorus]
You gave me secondhand scars
Hand-me-down hurt in the shape of your arms
I wear your words like they’re stitched in my skin
Trying to love you from a safer distance
Secondhand scars
I’m not passing them on
[Verse 2]
You called it “toughening up”
When my eyes filled with rain
Told me to stand like a soldier
While you were loading the pain
I grew up early
You stayed the same
I changed my last name in my head
Long before I could change
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
I keep your picture in a drawer
Face down
Frame cracked on the side
Some days I hear your voice
And I almost dial
I’m learning how to be
What you never tried to be
A gentle kind of strong
That sets a child free
[Chorus]