Funny how a house can look the same
When nothing in your life is the same.
The clock still talks to an empty room…
And I still turn around
Like I'm expecting you.
You were standing by the doorway
With the morning on your face,
Saying, "Son, you never call me,
You don't visit like you used to these days."
I was thinking about tomorrow,
About the things I had to do.
I said, "I'll call you when I'm less busy."
I didn't know time was listening too.
You had questions I kept running from,
I had dreams you couldn't see.
We were both too proud to say the words
That might have set us free.
Now your chair is by the window,
And the dust has settled there.
I would give the world to hear you ask me
If I'm eating well, if I still care.
I thought we had forever.
I thought there'd always be
One more day to say I love you,
One more chance for you and me.
If I had one more minute,
I wouldn't let it pass.
I'd put my pride down on the floor,
I'd hold you like I should have.
No, I wouldn't need the right words.
I wouldn't need to be strong.
I'd just sit beside you quietly
And let you know you weren't alone.
If I had one more minute…
But all I have is this song.
I found your old things in a drawer,
Some photographs, a faded page.
My name was written on the envelope
In handwriting I could almost hear you say.
Inside, you wrote about the boy I was,
The man you hoped I'd be.
You said you never knew the perfect way
To give your love to me.
You kept the pictures that I drew for you,
The ones I thought you'd thrown away.
You'd carried pieces of my childhood
Long after I had walked away.
And somewhere in those simple words,
Beneath the things you couldn't say,
I met the man behind the father
For the very first time that day.
You were learning how to love me.
I was learning how to leave.
We were both afraid of something
Neither one could make the other see.
If I had one more minute,
I wouldn't let it pass.
I'd put my pride down on the floor,
I'd hold you like I should have.
No, I wouldn't need the right words.
I wouldn't need to be strong.
I'd just sit beside you quietly
And let you know you weren't alone.
If I had one more minute…
But all I have is this song.
Tonight, my little girl came running,
With a story on her tongue.
I was staring at a thousand things
I thought I needed done.
She said, "Daddy, are you listening?"
And I almost said, "Not now."
Then I saw your empty chair
And I put everything down.
I pulled her close and listened
As she told me about her day.
And for the first time in a long time,
I knew love didn't have to wait.
I don't have another minute
To bring you back to me.
But there's someone here beside me
Who still needs the best of me.
So I'll put my pride down on the floor.
I'll say the words out loud.
I won't make the ones I love
Keep guessing what I'm feeling now.
And when my little girl remembers me,
When she's grown and on her own,
I hope she knows she never had to
Earn a place she called her home.
I can't rewrite the days behind me.
I can't undo the things I've done.
But I can love the ones before me
Like tomorrow may not come.
Funny how a house can look the same…
When nothing in your life is the same.
I wish I'd known
While you were here.
Some things you only learn
When the room goes quiet.
And someone
Isn't there.