But Breathing

Unwanted, but breathing

In the next room, sleeping

My mother, she’s crying

And my father’s been drinking

In our run-down apartment

Where the roof is still leaking

He’s cursing and cussing

It’s just the whiskey talking

And I’ve got lots of memories like this one

Of empty days and nights spent tired and lonesome

When I think back… to all of it

It’s all too much

Oh it’s all too much when you’re just a little kid

My little brother, just a newborn baby

In the image of my mother, says he’s a blessing

But not to my father, oh how he hates him

“An undeserving mistake,” He calls him a burden

And I’ve got lots of memories like this one

Of picking sides and picking fights between them

When I think back… to all of it

Well, it’s all too much

Well, it’s all too much when you’re just a little kid

And when I wake up in the morning it all feels like a bad dream

One that follows you and haunts you endlessly

Yeah, haunts me endlessly

Well, broken and beaten from the abuse and the cheating

The addiction, and the lying and the promise of leaving

While my old man was a bastard, I admired and loved him

And us two kids, we were born in to a family, not a fortune, no