I was born into love already cracked at the seams

A house built on silence not childhood dreams

Mama was strong Daddy proud in his way

But their battles became the price I pay

Court papers decided where I would sleep

Every other weekend the distance ran deep

On bridges of steel I learned to fear

The sound of collisions still rings in my ear

He once took me north not to harm but to win

A war between grown ups I was folded within

I saw Mama climb fences with desperate demands

While I watched from the window too young to understand

In that kitchen his voice made me choose

Not toys not candy but which parent I would lose

My finger pressed softly into Mama’s side

But inside me a fracture began to divide

I grew up with love but it carried a cost

For every embrace there was something I lost

The trauma runs deeper than anyone sees

I still hear the echoes when I try to find peace

I love them both God knows that is true

But their choices wrote scars that I still stumble through

I smile through the pain but it lingers inside

A child once broken an adult who can’t hide

And Daddy though gone I miss you each day

I hope you’re beside me in my darkest of shade

But the battles you fought the damage was done

I am still mending the pieces of what I have become

So if love has a lesson then here it will stand

Parents leave marks they do not understand

A child grows older but never outgrows

The weight of the wars that the grown ups chose