Deadbeat Daddy

By Alix Olson

On Built Like That

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My daddy used to sing me to sleep

With labor songs

Whisper me to sleep with stories of faraway lands

Where things

Were done right

He let his child dream

Cause he knew that while we sleep

Taco bell births three new chains

The biggest welfare mamas are steel buildings and

America’s just a deadbeat daddy trying to grow up

A deadbeat daddy putting nickels in our cup

When the law says he’s got to

And i guess i should have guessed

Your daddy wasn’t kind

Cause his mouth smiled before his eyes

Never caught up

Like a store sign flipped to open

But the door’s still locked

Like america

Saying come on in baby

Your uncle sam’s lookin for a fix

My daddy turned to vodka with a twist of lime

To keep his mind off of

America

My daddy took off his ties and dressed

In expensive labor unions instead

My daddy was ahead of his midwestern charm

And mostly, it don’t harm you

The daddy you come from

Cause we all grow up

With the same melting molting america

Up your ass while you sleep

Taco bell births three new chains around you

And you wonder why you never learned to walk

Your first step was towards your daddy

And your next step was towards your daddy

And your mama wonders sometimes if she failed you

But mostly she’s relieved

Your deadbeat daddy wants you

Cause america’s discriminating

And the brain unlike the skin

Is invisibly incriminating

America takes shots at blacks

My daddy drinks shots to forget

America is a deadbeat daddy

The biggest welfare mamas are steel buildings

And so for the most part, we parent ourselves

My daddy sang me to sleep with the way things should be

Cause he knew the hardest part of my history

Would be learning it

So i drink a shot of vodka for my daddy sometimes

And i always make sure it’s cold

Like america, the deadbeat daddy

Who holds you tight

While you sleep