Ghosts of Brian Sr.

Your name on my license, but your love never signed off.

So I became my own father... just younger.

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I carry your name like a chain with rust

Tryna polish up pain that was passed in trust

Never learned how to fish, just learned how to fight

'Cause you ain't teach a thing — just left overnight

Mama did both — yeah, she wore both roles

While you watched life like a rerun show

Birthdays came, but your calls never did

So I learned real quick what abandonment is

I ain’t need you to ball, just needed you real

Just needed a hand when life broke the seal

But you was gone, ghost in the crowd

Now I raise my kids just to make you proud? Nah.

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I got ghosts in my veins and your voice in my head

Woke dreams with your absence still left in my bed

How you give me your name, then vanish from life?

Now I’m writin' you songs just to make it feel right

You ain’t raise me, but I still grew tall

Still built from the silence, still broke that wall

Now I carry the weight you dropped on me

But I made a man outta what you couldn’t be

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You missed first steps, missed my first fight

Missed every “I need you” on them cold nights

I ain’t hate you — I just felt too small

Tried to play catch with a father who would never call

I still wonder if you ever thought twice

If the guilt ever hit you like midnight ice

If you saw my face in a stranger's laugh

Would it haunt you like this empty path?

I’m a father now, and it hurts me deep

'Cause I love my kids in the way you sleep

Never there, but you left your mark

So I tattooed pain and turned it into art

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I got ghosts in my veins and your voice in my head

Woke dreams with your absence still left in my bed

How you give me your name, then vanish from life?

Now I’m writin' you songs just to make it feel right

You ain’t raise me, but I still grew tall

Still built from the silence, still broke that wall

Now I carry the weight you dropped on me

But I made a man outta what you couldn’t be

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Your shadow raised me more than you did.

But that’s cool... I turned it into something I can live with.

Rest easy, Brian Sr. I got the rest from here.