[Verse 1] I was born in 1989 with a TV glow in the room House phone on the kitchen wall and a cartoon Saturday bloom Streetlights were the curfew bell and bikes were our escape We learned the world by scraped up knees and every backroad shape Pictures lived in shoeboxes, not floating in a cloud We laughed too hard in parking lots and lived our lives out loud Nobody filmed our broken hearts, nobody tracked our plans We only knew the friends we had by voices, eyes, and hands [Verse 2] Then the years came rushing in like a train I could not slow Dial tones turned to satellites and the whole world learned to show Every thought became a headline, every wound became content Truth got lost in louder rooms and common sense got spent Now the kids grow up with filters, fear, and strangers in their face And innocence gets swallowed by a faster, colder pace I blinked and thirty-five years passed between a cassette and a screen And somewhere in that neon noise we lost what simple means [Pre-Chorus] I am not saying every old day was gold But there was something human in the way we used to hold A life that did not feel so hacked apart By the poison and the panic tearing at the heart [Chorus] I wish I could go back Not just for me, but for my son Give him summer in the nineties Let him outrun the setting sun Let him know a world less wired Less angry, less numb Before this crazy fucked up mess Became what we have all become I would take him there tomorrow If I could turn the years around To a time when life felt smaller But love felt bigger somehow [Verse 3] I want him climbing chain-link fences with his heroes on his shirt Trading cards and chasing fireflies with grass stains in the dirt I want boredom and imagination making kingdoms in the yard Not algorithms in his pocket teaching him to guard his heart I want front porches, real conversations, Friday nights that breathed A little less suspicion in the air, a little more belief I know the past had cracks in it, I know it was not pure But it felt less like every day was one more thing to endure [Bridge] Now I watch him sleeping peaceful And I feel both hope and grief Because a child deserves a childhood Not a world beyond belief So I fight to keep the light on In the lessons that I give Teach him kindness, teach him backbone Teach him how a good man lives Maybe I cannot revive it Maybe time is not that kind But I can plant a piece of yesterday Deep in his heart and mind [Chorus] I wish I could go back Not just for me, but for my son Give him summer in the nineties Let him outrun the setting sun Let him know a world less wired Less angry, less numb Before this crazy fucked up mess Became what we have all become I would take him there tomorrow If I could turn the years around To a time when life felt smaller But love felt bigger somehow [Outro] I was born in 1989 And I still carry that old sky If I cannot bring him back there I will teach him how to find A little peace, a little wonder A little truth the world cannot drown And maybe through his eyes We can build some of that lost world now [End]
