Love ain’t always easy, and sometimes it feels like the fight is endless. But when you’ve got something worth fighting for, you never give up


Dear Zaiden

[Verse 1]
Mama got you thinkin' that my absence was my choice
But I’ve been shoutin' love, and muted by the noise
Taught to hate me by the lips that should’ve taught you love
Paintin' me as wicked while she holds you in a hug
Missed your first steps first goals first days
Had to watch it all unfold through the pictures on a page
Buried in arrears man I'm drowning just to breathe
Brokе and broken-hearted no onе sees me when I bleed
They judge a man who struggles but don't judge the lies they spin
Got a war inside my head, but I don't let the devil win
I would spend my last breath, just to hear you call me dad
Even if you hate me now, i always really got your back
Crohn’s cuttin' through me like a blade beneath the skin
My head pounding heavy like the guilt I hold within
Five grand down, but it’s more than just the numbers
I'm buried in the shame, tryna dig out from the rubble
Mama hides you on my days, locks me out the plan
She switches up your school so I can’t know you as a man
Grounds you from the phone, I hear silence on the line
Feels like every “love you”, gettin' cut before it's time
The system says I’m reckless, I'm branded by a check
But money ain't a metric for the love that I project
Lost count of all the letters, every prayer tried to send
I'm tryna bridge the gap but the world it builds a fence
Do you hate me for the distance or resent me for the flights?
I just hope you know I'd die before I'd ever leave your life
I never meant to miss it all, the years that slipped away
All the games I never got to see or watch you celebrate

Eminem hook

[Verse 2]

Wish I could just show you all the tears I’ve had to swallow
I'm drowning in the ache but still believing in tomorrow
I've missed so many birthdays, seen candles just from a screen
Singing "Happy Birthday" to a picture in a dream
But son, I loved you from the moment that I saw you breathe
When they cut your cord, your mom saw it just as a leave
Mama got you thinkin' that I left you for the wind
But the truth is, I've been locked outside the home I should be in
They see me like a failure, like a man who didn't care
But I carry every missed hug like a burden couldn't bear
Did they tell you how I prayed when I heard you caught the flu?
How I stayed up all night long, feeling helpless without you?
You don’t see the sleepless nights, prayin' for a break
Prayin' that you'll see my love, prayin' ain't too late
I wish you knew the truth, the battle that I fight
While your mama paints me black and white, but love ain't made of spite
Maybe when you're older, you can understand the hurt
And know that all my absence wasn't because lack of work
I've broken down in parking lots, screaming at the sky
Wondering if God could hear me, beg for you in life
I’ve folded baby clothes I never got to see you wear
Staring at the fabric like it’s proof that life ain’t fair
I still got your drawings, crumpled corners, faded ink
Held 'em like a lifeline every time I’d start to think
I celebrated your birthday with a candle and a cry
Singing to the silence, asking God the reasons why
And if I never get to hear you call me "dad" again
Just know I loved you deeper than this world could understand
I kissed your baby blanket like it still could hold your scent
Wrote letters to your future that I’ll never get to send
If love could build a bridge, I’d crawl across each mile
Just to die beside your door, if it meant you'd feel my smile