[Verse 1] I was the joke in the circle The friends made it hurt Same kids that would smile at me Then bury me first Mama was pretty in daylight Soft voice, clean dress But home had a shadow in it That lived in her chest At eight, I learned pain From hands I should trust A child should not carry that A child is not dust [Pre-Chorus] I kept my mouth shut Kept my face still If I was the problem Why did it feel so real? I wanted one person Who would stay and defend But love kept arriving late And leaving again [Chorus] Life cycles of a dysfunctional child I learned to survive in the wild Life cycles of a dysfunctional child Pain kept coming back in style Life cycles of a dysfunctional child I was small, but I stayed alive Life cycles of a dysfunctional child Somebody please break the line [Verse 2] At ten, my dad found a new home A new name, a new bed I watched him drift from my face To the life he had read My brother was gone in his own hurt His own door, his own storm So I stood in the hallway alone Trying hard to stay warm By fifteen, I slept on the curb With the lost and the high My mother was locked up by then And nobody told me why Cold bread in my pocket Fear living in my ribs I was a child in a dead zone Just trying to live [Pre-Chorus] I searched every room For a place I belonged But even surrounded by people I still felt wrong They called it growing up I called it bleeding slow When nobody protects you Where is a kid supposed to go? [Chorus] Life cycles of a dysfunctional child I learned to survive in the wild Life cycles of a dysfunctional child Pain kept coming back in style Life cycles of a dysfunctional child I was small, but I stayed alive Life cycles of a dysfunctional child Somebody please break the line [Bridge] At eighteen, I broke under it Took from two strangers that night Not proud of the man I became But I know what made him bite Then jail walls taught me silence And the cost of my hands That was never power That was a wounded boy in a man I can name every scar now I can look it in the eye If I tell the whole truth, maybe I can stop the chain tonight [Final Chorus] Life cycles of a dysfunctional child I learned to survive in the wild Life cycles of a dysfunctional child Pain kept coming back in style Life cycles of a dysfunctional child I was small, but I stayed alive Life cycles of a dysfunctional child Now I’m brave enough to break the line
