[INTRO] She ain’t the bad guy… She the one who stayed. If you ever wonder why I’m hurting, baby, it ain’t you. [VERSE 1] You ain’t the reason that I’m broken, you the reason I still stand, When my mind becomes a war zone, you still reach and hold my hand. You’ve seen the ugly, seen the silence, seen the nights I couldn’t speak, Never made me feel like damaged goods, never made me feel too weak. You gave me years I wasn’t promised, gave me love I can’t repay, If gratitude was currency, I’d still be broke today. You the GOAT, I hope you know it, ain’t nobody taking that, You’ve been loving somebody who keeps looking backward while he’s trying to move past. And sometimes my sadness probably makes you feel like you did wrong, Like you’re competing with a ghost that’s been gone too long. But you ain’t fighting with the dead, you ain’t losing to the past, I’m just learning how to love today without wishing yesterday could last. [HOOK] My wife ain’t the bad guy, she’s the reason I’m still here, She ain’t taking nothing from me, she’s been standing through the years. I’m forever grateful, but I’m forever grieving too, And somehow both those things can live inside the same truth. I grieve every beginning, every ending, every change, Every season moving forward while I’m begging it to stay. So if you ever see me hurting and wonder what you did, Baby, you ain’t what I’m grieving… I’m grieving everything. [VERSE 2] Cierra ain’t the whole story, she’s the name that made it loud, She’s the tip beneath the water, there’s an iceberg underneath this cloud. I grieve the doors before they close, the chapters before they end, I grieve the person that I was before I become someone again. I grieve the little things, the stuff nobody understands, The last time somebody held me before they slipped into the past. I grieve old homes and old jobs, old streets and old dreams, Old versions of myself that I’ll never get to meet. I grieve birthdays, I grieve growing, I grieve watching children change, Every milestone means yesterday just got rearranged. I grieve every decade before I reach the next, ‘Cause forty-one ain’t forty-one, it’s forty years I can’t collect. I grieve careers I’ll never work, doors I’ll never walk through, Conversations I didn’t know would be the last ones too. I grieve the seasons when they’re ending, even when the next one’s good, ‘Cause once something becomes “back then,” I can’t go back like I wish I could. [HOOK] My wife ain’t the bad guy, she’s the reason I’m still here, She ain’t taking nothing from me, she’s been standing through the years. I’m forever grateful, but I’m forever grieving too, And somehow both those things can live inside the same truth. I grieve every beginning, every ending, every change, Every season moving forward while I’m begging it to stay. So if you ever see me hurting and wonder what you did, Baby, you ain’t what I’m grieving… I’m grieving everything. [VERSE 3] So let me say it plain before my silence says it wrong, You have never been the problem, you’ve been helping me hold on. You didn’t create this weight, you volunteered to help me carry, And I know sometimes that’s heavy, I know sometimes it ain’t fair. I can’t promise I’ll stop grieving, I can’t promise I won’t break, But I can promise when I’m hurting, I won’t make your heart pay. Because loving you is present tense even when I’m stuck in past, And I’m learning grief ain’t proof that I don’t know how to love what lasts. Maybe I can mourn what disappeared without wishing life away, Maybe I can thank God for yesterday and still walk into today. Cierra will always have her place here, every loss will leave a scar, But you… you are not another loss. You’re where my life still starts. [FINAL HOOK] My wife ain’t the bad guy, she’s the GOAT, she’s my home, She’s been standing in the doorway while I learn to leave ghosts alone. I’m forever grateful, even while I’m forever grieving, ‘Cause losing what I loved doesn’t mean I stopped believing. I grieve every beginning, every ending, every change, Every chapter getting written knowing nothing stays the same. And if I cry about the past, it ain’t because I want it back, It’s because I loved it while I had it… and that’s the price of that. [OUTRO] So Cierra ain’t the whole iceberg. She’s one name on an ocean full of names. Every goodbye ever taught me how much I loved the hello. Baby… you ain’t the bad guy. You’re the person I’m most grateful I got to keep. And maybe that’s what I’m finally learning: I don’t have to stop grieving to start living. I just have to stop confusing an ending… with the end.
