Paul Shapera
Daddy Left
[Intro: Child on Mannequin's Screen]
Past the world, past the night
Past the stars where seabirds fly
Past your dreams to toil and shore
Where we will meet again once more

[Verse 1: John O'Brien]
I sat beside your bed on the night before I left
While you slept, I had my say
I know I had some drinks, I explained you everything
About why I couldn't stay

My anger and my grief, liquor, pain, and broken dreams
I was no good for you, babe
They offered me a way to quench my thirst for blood and rage
And so daddy went away

[Chorus: John O'Brien]
Your daddy went away
Your daddy went away
The hole in which I fell, didn't want for you as well
So daddy went away

[Verse 2: John O'Brien]
I became the hand of karma, of wrath and fire and fodder
The terror in their night
The monster in the basement, the ogre of damnation
And the man inside died
But then one day the rage was all gone and what remained
Was a chasm in my chest
The only thing that mattered, the child I turned my back on
The girl I should have kept

[Bridge: John O'Brien]
But daddy left, daddy left
Your daddy left
The things that I have done, the wrath that I have wrung
The widows who have wept
The beast that I've become, the judgment and the blood
You must forget, or be crippled by regret
Your daddy left, your daddy left
Your daddy left
Your mother was my life, my heart and soul and wife
She blew up and was gone, I didn't know how to go on
I didn't know how to accept

[Child on Mannequin's Screen]
Past the world, past the night
Past the stars where seabirds fly

[Verse 3: John O'Brien]
I wish for your forgiveness, I wish the past was different
I wish I would have known
I wish for stars and sails, pipe dreams and fairy tales
But atonement time has flown
And if somewhere you hate me, and your memories of me faded
And resentment's all you know
You can take some consolation, that at the sad end of his days
Daddy will die all alone, Daddy will die all alone

[Outro: John O'Brien]
There's no one else that's that left
Just this room and war and death
Your daddy's all alone