I forgive but can't forget

## Verse 1

First few years you were there, then became a ghost

Marine corps values, that's what you valued most

Three decades of birthdays, most spent alone

Apparently a parent has to parent their children? That wasn't shown

One, maybe two visits scattered through the years

Building a relationship through absence and fears

I'm 31 now, still waiting for that call

Wondering if in your mind, I exist at all

## Hook

Apparently a parent has to parent their children

But you left that role vacant, that position

Left me questioning what I did wrong in your vision

Apparently a parent has to parent their children

## Verse 2

You wanted me in uniform, following your path

Despite the PTSD that broke you in the aftermath

Pills for depression, nightmares that never cease

Yet pushed me toward a war that stole your peace

CPS case opened, a whole year passed by

Before you even heard about it, didn't even try

To reach out, ask questions, offer support

Apparently a parent has to parent, but yours fell short

## Bridge

Do you think about me when the day grows long?

Do you wonder who I've become, what went wrong?

I still love you, Dad, that will never change

But love without presence feels so strange

## Verse 3

Music became my shelter, my voice, my release

Building something beautiful from this incomplete peace

You wouldn't know about the bars I spit or shit I transpose

The passion that saved me, cuz you chose not to know

I've reached out so many times, tried to build that bridge

But connection requires two sides to eliminate the ridge

Even after everything, I wouldn't want my kids to feel

What it's like to be forgotten, that pain is too real

## Freestyle

Your absence taught lessons words never could

Made me stand on my own when nobody would

Blood ties don't guarantee they'll see you through the storm

Your silence shaped me in ways beyond the norm

Father figure fragmented, just pieces of a man

I built myself from scratch, no blueprint, no plan

Still searching reflections for traces of your face

Wondering which parts of you I shouldn't erase

They say forgiveness heals, but what about the void?

The space where memories should be, but were destroyed

Apparently a parent has to parent, that's the truth that stings

But from broken expectations, my resilience sings

## Outro

Apparently a parent has to parent their children

That's the lesson you taught me in your absence

I'll break this cycle with my own descendance

Never let them question if they're worth my existence