In every way I let my confidence show/I was able to remember every inch that I grow/Came from the ability to live up to this day/Letting my feet move up another space/Trying not to curve off the path I set for myself/Still clinging to the hope that one day I'll get help/Their hands empty where I used to belong/When I didn't know their judgment of right was wrong/The puppeteer held me by the strings/Tore my pride off, like they were broken wings/Age 5 I had no broken smile/Everything was colored in the lines for a while/No tears shed, only happiness mattered/Yet somehow I knew my life wouldn't stay put on this pattern/I still saw my parents, my mom desperate for divorce/But my dad promised he would go through every storm/To keep all of us together, kept us engaged in sadness/Mom didn't see what she put us through, her eyes driven my madness/Dad, how long are you going to pull us through?/Will this difficult love be over soon?/Since when was the last time you were man of the house?/Where's the love for your children that you gave to your spouse?/She's put us through hunger, loneliness, and shame/I'm tired of this daddy, I don't want to play this game/You gave her everything, my confidence starting to bleed/My confidence that your love would fulfill all our needs/The violent words you threw at each other/I never saw this other side of my mother/Until she decided to crack the whip/I saw her throw something at you that busted your lip/I dashed towards the scene to see all the rage/The same women you loved grew less patient with age/The tolerance of a father who never received/The love of a mother that was out of my reach/The anger of a child who was waiting for a cure/For the sorrow her parents made her endure/To watch hurt be inflicted on a man who only loved/Only to be yelled at, threatened, and shoved/But you taught me one thing, and that is the ability/To seek out hope with no vengeance, but instead with humility/To love someone unconditionally and not expect the same/You did everything for mommy, you went out of your way/I want to follow that path, but expect something in return/Because the father I love never got what he deserved/The swollen heart of swallowed feelings, of joy and fear and laughter/A work of art that tells us she won't live happily after/The time she finds a better way to deal with her dark past/The aftertaste of love and pride does not sincerely last/For people turn cold like the colors of the seasons/Is it not his fault, for he had a reason?/But darkness stains the white of my clothes/As caring stops, and the leaves grow old/With the sound of my heart that folds a kiss/Over the depths of love's dismiss