Omar Musa - Oh Child of Mine

★ chorus ★
Oh, child, oh, child
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child, oh, child
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child of mine

★ verse 1 ★
I can never quite say what i'm trying to say
I speak to my grandma in broken malay
Digging deep for a poem that's inside of my veins
Then a smile says everything i'm trying to convey
See her eyes glowin' with a special kinda knowin'
Now i'm overflowin' with the gratitude and poems
But each day i wake with a deep sense of fear
Crazy how it finds a new form to reappear
Dear listener, do you feel it too?
Do you feel my pain, do you hear my truth?
Insecurities, they tear me apart
Evеn pre-pandemic i was wearing a mask
Vеry strange days in the time of the plague
Like an off-key melody forever replays
Then i think of something that my grandmother would say
"dear child, you shall not be afraid"

★ chorus ★
Oh, child, oh, child
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child, oh, child
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child of mine

★ verse 2 ★
Yeah
I'm not sure if i believe in god
All i know is that i'm not him, and that i beat the odds
Stay sober, one day at a time
Then i bow to the page like i pray at a shrine
Wine into water, lemons into lemonade
Shadows into gold, turn the pain into a serenade
Same guy, came of age in the post-9/11 era
Lost, full of rage
Somewhere, my crescent moon got dim, swallowed up by sin
The juice and the gin, meet up with my friend
Playing with his new son
He discovers the world with new eyes through him
A brand new perspective, "life is hectic," he says
"but his laughter is infectious," he says, "what a blessing," he says
I drive away and i wonder
What kind of lessons did i teach my parents when i was younger?
Will i ever have my own kids?
I nearly did, i speak to em sometimes in my dreams
I say "little one, come what may
Dear child, you shall not be afraid."

★ chorus ★
Oh, child, oh, child
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child, oh, child
Oh, child of mine
Oh, child of mine

★ interlude ★
This might be the realest thing i ever wrote
This might be the last thing i ever write, you never know
So i give you every fibre, every ounce of my spirit
Every time i put pen to page, i make it count, i make it vivid

★ verse 3 ★
I'm not religious but the spirit feels holy
I walk towards the light slowly, take a deep breath
Throwing flowers on the grave of the old me
Paper up the cracks of my soul with the gold leaf
I was living in hell, nearly bid farewell
Nearly killed myself in the song hotel
That was five years back, but i broke that spell
Now i'm swimming from the bottom of the well, uh
From the dark somehow i found clarity
The armies at war found solidarity
Through the beauty of music, in this moment
We are all so different, but make a singularity
It's never too late for us to atone
Or make amends, my friend, we're never truly alone
I say, my friend, we can be a part of the solution
A small act of kindness can be a revolution
Let the earth revolve, the lost souls evolve
The coral reef regrow, the bloody tears dissolve
In potholes we sew flannel flowers to bloom
Through the fire and snow, stories yet to be told
I feel the rain on my face
Tomorrow isn't promised so i live for today
This is possibly the very last thing i'll ever say
Dear friend, we shall not be afraid