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I Gave You Shelter
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I Gave You Shelter

KAI
#family#fatherhood
0:000:00
[Verse 1]
Cradle-side whispers, I’m drafting these confessions
Clock hands slicing dinners into missed connections
Blueprints on the table, your drawings got neglected
Paychecks stacked high, but your questions went unanswered

I chased figures, decimal places over presence
Built a kingdom out of absence, called it protection
Your first steps happened somewhere I wasn’t standing
Heard about it later through a screen, buffering, lagging

Lullabies replaced by the hum of late commutes
Suit wrinkled, spirit thinning, buried under suits
I told myself sacrifice would shape a better fate
Didn’t see the distance growing heavy at the gate

You reached for me, I reached deadlines instead
Tucked ambition in your place beside your bed
Every bedtime story traded for a contract clause
Now I’m reading through regrets, trying to find a cause

[Chorus]
I gave you shelter, but I ghosted all the moments
Built a future, never lived inside the present
Now these echoes fill the rooms I never stayed in
I was working for your lives, not living with them

[Verse 2]
Now you grown, voices deeper, eyes carry distance
Conversations feel formal, wrapped in resistance
I see myself inside your silence when you listen
Like you learned how to love with careful restriction

Graduation seats, I watched through a replay
Pixelated pride, but I wasn’t in the same place
You learned strength without a guide in your vicinity
Turned independence into quiet resiliency

I hear your tone, polite, but there’s a fracture
Respect intact, but affection got captured
Time slipped quick, now I’m aging in reflection
Every memory I missed turned into a lesson

I tried to give you everything I never had
Didn’t realize everything excluded dad
Now I’m speaking from a place that’s almost too late
Hoping honesty might somehow recalibrate

[Chorus]
I gave you shelter, but I ghosted all the moments
Built a future, never lived inside the present
Now these echoes fill the rooms I never stayed in
I was working for your lives, not living with them

[Bridge]
If currency could purchase back a single second
I’d bankrupt every deal just to feel your presence
Trade every title, every milestone, every gain
For a seat at your table, hearing laughter in my name

[Chorus]
I gave you shelter, but I ghosted all the moments
Built a future, never lived inside the present
Now these echoes fill the rooms I never stayed in
I was working for your lives, not living with them

[Outro]
So if you ever face that fork inside your road
Don’t confuse provision with a heart that’s close
Legacy ain’t numbers, it’s the time you spend
Don’t inherit my mistake, be there in the end