I Can Never Go Home

In the house where I grew up Walls lined with expectations Each step echoed a lesson Each mistake, a quiet frustration Father's eyes, like mirrors Reflecting his hopes, not my own In the silence of his standards I found a voice but lost a home I can never go home It's not just a place, but a time that's flown I can never go back To the boy in the shadows of all I lacked I walked away on a cold dawn With a suitcase of dreams, too heavy to hold Stepping out from his blueprint I sought a story that I could mould But each mile I put between us Was a word we never spoke In the distance, I found my freedom In our silence, something broke I can never go home It's not just a place, but a time that's flown I can never go back To the boy in the shadows of all I lacked Then the call came on a Sunday His world had slipped away Left with words unspoken Regrets that never fade In the quiet of my defiance I realized too late The home I thought I'd left behind Was a door that wouldn't wait Now I stand outside the gate The garden overgrown, the paint all peeled The man I've become, with eyes wide open At a fence unreconciled and sealed I can never go home Not to a place, nor to a time long gone I can never rewind To heal the heart of a father, once intertwined So here I am, a stranger At the doorstep of my past In the echo of my leaving I understand at last Home was more than walls and windows It was us, but now it's just me alone With love that's left unsaid In the life where I can never go home I can never go home