(Verse 1)
Remember chasing shadows, down a long and lonely hall
You were the king, the answer, standing ten feet tall
I hung on every promise, every word you ever said
Worshipped the ground you walked on, laid your crown upon my head
Our family portrait was my faith, framed in solid gold
But a fracture formed in silence, a story left untold.
(Chorus)
Then the tide turned, the waters pulled away
When the guilt came calling on that fateful day
A brother’s broken body, an echo in the room
And my dad, he bowed his head down, sealed up in a tomb
He knelt before my brothers, made them the only kings
And I became a ghost in the family of things.
(Verse 2)
My body screaming secrets, doctors’ words like heavy stones
But back at home, a silence, brittle in my bones
I fought the war in quiet, the chemo in my veins
While they whispered 'bout my brother, and his permanent pains
My cancer story wasn’t real, just a footnote in the past
A sickness of the spirit, too fragile for it to last.
(Chorus)
And the tide turned, the waters pulled away
When the guilt came calling on that fateful day
A brother’s broken body, an echo in the room
And my dad, he bowed his head down, sealed up in a tomb
He knelt before my brothers, made them the only kings
And I became a ghost in the family of things.
(Bridge)
Then a hand reached out, a lifeline in the gray
Aunt Lorraine, with her quiet way
Saw the cracks they painted over, heard the things they never said
She fed my body, fed my spirit, gave me life instead
She held me up when no one else would spare a single thought
The love they took for granted, was the war she gladly fought.
(Chorus)
But the tide turned, the waters pulled away
When the guilt came calling on that fateful day
A brother’s broken body, an echo in the room
And my dad, he bowed his head down, sealed up in a tomb
He knelt before my brothers, made them the only kings
And I became a ghost in the family of things.
(Outro)
I thought I worshipped a hero, a man I could depend on
But heroes don’t forget their children, when the other sons have gone
So I’ll thank my Aunt Lorraine, for giving me a place to be
And let my father bow to them, while Lorraine gives life to me.