Daddy's in the Backyard

Your daddy’s in the backyard

Don’t bother him

Don’t you--

Let him do

Whatever it is

He’s doing

And when he’s done

Don’t ask him about it

Who do you think you are anyway?

You turned eighteen

And all of a sudden

I got to contend

With a smartass

Thinks she knows everything

Just cause now

I don’t have to pay her bills

Anymore

Let me tell you something, little girl

You clean all the rooms you want

At that shithole motel of yours

But that don’t teach you

Nothing about anything

And it don’t make you worldly

That’s for goddamn sure

I should have never

Let you get that job

Your uncle said you could work with him

At the bar

And I said, ‘No, no’

Because I didn’t want you

Getting your ass grabbed

Every five minutes

But you know what?

I should have let you

Learn a little something

About humility

About what happens

When you think

You can just mouth off

To any adult you want

Mouth off to one of those guys

At the bar

And see what happens to you

You’ll be coming home

With a ripped skirt

And a fat lip

Just like I did

For fifteen years

Before I hurt my back

Your daddy’s out there now

Trying to wrestle with something

And you want to go out

And talk to him

About something you heard?

About him walking out of some room

Looking funny?

Why do you think that’s your business?

You think I don’t know

Where he goes when he--

And it’s none of your business

People make all kinds of decisions in life

And I made a few before you were even born

About what I was going to expect from you

And your father

And myself

And I’ll tell you something

It wasn’t much

On any end

I don’t expect a damn thing

From anybody

And that’s how come I can sit here

And not cross my eyes with worry

That my little heart’s going to get broken

Just because it turns out

I don’t know any goddamn saints

You stopped trying to hold me up

A long time ago

And that’s just fine with me, little girl

But you’re still trying

To hold up that man out there

And he’s too heavy

For a hundred daughters to hold

But he thought maybe he could do it

Maybe he could live up

To your high standards

And that’s why he’s out there now

Face in the dirt

Crying like a fucking baby

Because you caught him

Acting like a man

Think about the shame you put on him
Your own father

And what’d you get out of it, huh?

Break yourself up

A little bit more

And him to

And I gotta spend god knows how long

Putting you all

Back together

And quite frankly

I’m sick of it

I really am

There ain’t a soul on this earth

Who hasn’t spent

A day or two

In the darkness

Just because they felt like it

And it ain’t the job

Of those who addicted to the light

To judge them for it

Me?

I never left the darkness

I stuck right down in it

And I’ve never wondered

What the other side looked like

Doesn’t mean I couldn’t raise you

How I was supposed to

But don’t you talk to me

About what anybody needs to do

To improve themselves, little girl

When you’re born good

You don’t get to tell somebody

How to be better

When you’re somebody like you

You don’t get to tell anybody

Anything