I'm Sorry Inner Child of Mine

[Verse 1]

It's been a long time coming

And we knew that this was going to be hard,

You suffered a lot at the hands of those meant to love

And protect you,

Yourself included

I wasn't the best role model for you,

And frankly, no one else wanted to be,

We tried

We worked with what we received

And more often than not,

Those things

Were scraps,

And your life's worth more than that,

[Pre-Chorus]

Someone should have noticed

Things weren't kosher at home,

Your small eight-year-old hands

That closed around your own throat

Shouldn't have been a thought

[Chorus]

I'm sorry, inner child of mine,

You suffered at such a young age

That you never figured out how to live

A child trapped inside an adult body

Simply wanting to love and be loved

Wanting to be accepted cause you knew

How it felt to get excluded

You understood the silence in the suffering

When you were too young to understand

The why

So, as I lay you down to rest

(I'm sorry, inner child of mine)

[Verse 2]

I know it didn't get easier from there

Hospital visits and institution stays,

Scared to sleep at night in an unfamiliar place,

No one was willing to dig under the sand,

You felt the pain from others,

Read it like a page written in a book,

Understood the words that haven't passed lips,

Saw past the masks that only scared them further,

You learned to be the monster they feared

Cause you felt that love had no room for you,

If I could have given you the world

Please know that I would in a California minute,

[Pre-Chorus]

Someone should have noticed

Things were not kosher at home,

Thirteen-years-old

A gun pointed at your head

In a place that's supposed to be a safe space

[Chorus]

I'm sorry, inner child of mine,

You suffered at such a young age

That you never figured out how to live

A child trapped inside an adult body

Simply wanting to love and be loved

Wanting to be accepted cause you knew

How it felt to get excluded

You understood the silence in the suffering

When you were too young to understand

The why

So, as I lay you down to rest

(I'm sorry, inner child of mine)

[Bridge]

I tried to mommy you,

And fucked up there too,

Wanted to be the dad you need,

But I didn't have the equipment prepared

Wanted to be the protective older sibling,

With no map on where or how to start,

Thrown into a tornado at the start of it all,

Left for dead on the side of the imaginary road,

Roadkill for the passerby to stare and point at,

The outcast with no home,

[Outro]

The grave's built,

A small pine box lowered

Like closing a chapter in a painful story

In a book that won't close

I hope you can find peace in this rest

And I hope you find happiness

In that forever peace, (ooohh)

I'm sorry, inner child of mine

(So sorry)

(I'm sorry, inner child of mine-)