My Father Lyrics

Oo Ah Ee oo oh

Oo Ah Ee oo oh

Oo Ah Ee oo oh

I forgive you

For leaving me

As a little boy

With a hole the size

Of a jumbo airplane

With no arms

Because you

Did not

Know

How to love

Yourself

I forgive you

For telling my mother

She lied

That you would

Never give her

A near nickel

For me again

Though I did not know

What a near nickel was

I forgive you

For the times

My mother yelled at me

Not to be like you

But then also screamed

I was just like you

You didn't know how to love yourself

Oo Ah Ee oo oh

Father I don't wanna forgive you but I will

Leaving me as a boy must've been in God's will

As a man I realized the mistakes of your past

Pressing forward and come to the conclusion at last

I forgive you

For those moments

When my mother

Grabbed and shook me

When she really

Wanted to

Grab and shake you

I forgive you

For all

The graveyard moments

Where I

Wished I was being

Taught by you

How to be a man

But had to

Scan

The different angles

Of blinking eyes of

Some other male life

While they were not looking

I forgive you

For never calling me

After that day you

Bumped into my mother

Years later

And took my telephone number

And said that you would

But never did

Oo Ah Ee oo oh

Oo Ah Ee oo oh

Father I don't wanna forgive you but I will

Leaving me as a boy must've been in God's will

As a man I realize the mistakes of your past

I'm Pressing forward and come to the conclusion at last

You didn't know how to love yourself

How could I think you could love someone else

You didn't know how to love yourself

How could I think you could love someone else

I forgive you

For the hurt

Forever lurking there

Like a pipe bomb

In my living room

For the hurt

Forever sleeping there

Like an unwanted partner

In my bedroom

I forgive you

Because I heard how

Years later

On your death march

With a body part or two

Chopped off

Missing

You asked your other children

For me

The only one not there

The only one up North

The only one who had barely ever seen you

The only one who did not know you

The only one who never called you

Dad or pop or sir

I forgive you for dying

Without my knowing

Yet I cried a decade later

When I found out

Because the hole was still there

I forgive you

Because

I also forgive me

For all those many years

I hated myself

For having

No father

Forgiveness

Forgiveness

Jay-Z once said

He had to make the song cry

Well I'm saying

Sometimes

We need to cry

Forgiveness

Forgiveness

I forgive you

I forgive you

I forgive you

Never knew my dad

I want to dance with my father

Like Luther danced

With his father

I wish I had a father

I have to be the man

I wanted you to be

My mother

Is my father

My mother did the best she could for me

You hurt my mother

You hurt my mother

You hurt my mother real bad

Oh my mother was my father

Oh my father

I forgive you

I remember that day

I got to your part

Of South Carolina

You had already been dead

About 10-11 years

And I just ran up

To the cemetery

That the genealogist who helped me to find you and your family

Told me

Your tombstone was at

Your gravesite

You and the other relatives of yours I didn't know either

And I got there and I looked and looked

Through all the high grass

For your tombstone

And then I finally found it

And I dropped to my knees

And I started crying

And thanking God

And I cried just like I did maybe a year before

When the genealogist told me

That you had been dead

And here I was

Crying for someone

That I didn't even know

Who I hadn't even seen

Since I was 8 years old

My father

My biological father

I didn't know you

But I cried for you

Like I did know you

Forgiveness

I wanna dance with my father

Forgiveness

Forgiveness

My father I

Forgiveness

Forgiveness

Forgiveness

My father I

I forgive

I forgive you

I forgive