[Verse 1] Family law that no one asked for Case four The Commonwealth versus Stephen Abandonment by absence Failure to parent Putting a child in the crossfire What do I remember about my dad? He's funny, he's goofy, he's pretty Dumber than a box of hair, likes the same music Likes the same shows, fought for a living Bounce, stripped, apparently fathered sixteen kids And counting, quite the resume Just missing one job title [Chorus] Dad, I don't remember school I don't remember what do you want to be I don't remember what keeps you up at night I don't remember anyone checking whether I was okay Because there wasn't a second parent, there was Mum Or there was no one And when you're a kid, you don't call that abandonment You call it normal You don't miss a hand, you never got to hold [Verse 2] No dad for Father's Day No second set of eyes No one behind me when the room turned bad No one saying, "Don't touch her, no, that's enough" No cavalry, no witness, no fucking backup Just me learning how to survive with nobody watching He was the man we didn't talk about The one who should not be named He didn't want you, he's dangerous He's disgusting, "Why do you want him? Am I not enough?" So I learned silence, I learned which questions made people angry I learned that curiosity could be disloyal Then one morning after another boyfriend had left Mom looked at me and said, "Do you want to meet your father?" And something inside me just dropped Because I didn't know if I was allowed to want him Didn't know if wanting him meant betraying her Didn't know which lie was the lie Apparently he was dying, apparently he wanted to meet me before he did Apparently Grandpa believed him So the decision wasn't really mine [Chorus] Eleven, maybe twelve, a child Sent to meet a stranger Because apparently that's what adults called closure And Mum made a fucking joke of it Closed hair, makeup, suddenly makeup was encouraged The first man out the door, that's Steve My face must have said everything, she laughed "Don't worry, that's not your dad" Then he walked out and there he was My face on somebody else's body And he was happy that fucked me up He was genuinely happy to see me We talked for hours, music, TV, TV All those tiny things that make the bloodline feel real For a moment, I wasn't abandoned I was somebody's kid, then I remember I was still 11 walking beside a strange man Through a dodgy part of Perth And I remember thinking, "Why the fuck did nobody think this was strange? Why was I the only child in the room while every adult forgot I was one?" [Verse 3] Then they started fighting and they made me listen Threats, secrets, old wounds, police records, things adults should've swallowed before they ever reached me "Let me see my kid, or I'll tell her what you did" And I wasn't a daughter, I was leverage, a bargaining chip with a pulse, that's what they did They took a child and put her between two adults who wanted to hurt each other And somehow I was expected to survive the shrapnel This isn't their testimony, it's mine A year later, Mom signed away custody and dad appeared in the paperwork, courtroom statements, custody Suddenly there was a father, funny how quickly a man can become a parent when there's a legal file with his name on it Where were you before the paperwork? Where were you before the custody? Where were you when nobody was looking? Where were you? Where were you? [Outro] I don't know what fathers are supposed to do I never had the chance to learn Maybe they're meant to ask about school Maybe they're meant to notice the bruises nobody talks about Maybe they're meant to look at a child and know something is wrong I didn't need perfection I didn't need a hero I didn't need you to save me from everything I needed one adult, one to look at what was happening and say "No, she's not safe here" No dad for Father's Day No second set of eyes No hand reaching back My mind disappeared and I don't grieve The father I lost I grieve the possibility of the father who might have noticed Because maybe you couldn't have saved me Maybe you didn't know Maybe you were too busy surviving yourself But you weren't there And I was absent Not a monster, not a hero Just a man, who wasn't there And last time I called it Thinking it was normal That's the part That still fucking hurts I didn't know I was abandoned I thought I was simply alone
