Unheard: They Hear Me, But They Not Listening

I.U.T.A

I understood ma;
When you told me we didn't have money to be wasting,
Food was scarce, the house was cold, sometimes I would wonder if we would even make it.

I aint have a cover, so I made sheet do,
But that wasn't nothing new;
When you grow up the way I do you learn to accept embarrassment.

You say you get it "life was hard",
Yet you didn't because I cherish it;
Life is hard, not "was", that's another embarrassment.

How come kids in school got to wear nice clothes, but I had to go home and crawl up under the bed because of what mother said.

Sibling after sibling, I'm sitting here trying to recall what father said;
God bless his head.
They told me to stop, but I been the provider ever since the one who step farther left.

I wanna be that adult that I needed as a child,
And even after step father after step father left,
your son shined harder when there was no one there.