Common, Lauryn Hill - Retrospect for Life lyrics

Yo, we gotta start respectin' life more y'all
You look at your brother man
You gotta see yourself
Gotta see the God within him
We brothers gettin' changed real
Quick over nothin'
We losin' too many of ours
Gotta recreate y'all yo, check it

Knowin' you the best part of life
Do I have the right to take yours?
Cause I created you, irresponsibly
Subconciously knowin' the act I was a part of
The start of somethin'
I'm not ready to bring into the world
Had myself believin' I was sterile
I look into mother's stomach
Wonder if you are a boy or a girl
Turnin' this woman's womb into a tomb
But she and I agree, a seed we don't need
You would've been much more than
A mouth to feed but someone
I would've fed this information I read
To someone
My life for you I woulda had to leave
Instead I lead you to death
I'm sorry for takin' your
First breath, first step, and first cry
But I wasn't prepared
Mentally nor financially
Havin' a child shouldn't have to bring
Out the man in me plus I wanted you to be
Raised within a family i don't wanna
Go through the drama of havin a baby's momma
Weekend visit's and buyin' J's ain't
Gon' make me a father
For a while bearing a child is
Somethin' I never wanted to do
For me to live forever I can
Only do that through you
Nerve I got to talk about
Them niggas with a gun
Must have really thought I was God to
Take the life of my son
I could have sacrificed goin' out
To think my homies who did it
I used to joke about
From now on I'ma use self
Control instead of birth control
Cause 315 dollars ain't worth your soul
315 dollars ain't worth your soul
315 dollars ain't worth it

I never dreamed you'd leave in summer
You said you would be here when it rained
Why didn't you stay

Seeing you as a present and a gift in it'self
You had our child in you
I probably never feel what you felt
But you dealt with it like the
Strong black woman you are
Through our trials and tribulations
Child's elimination
An integration of thoughts I
Feel about the situation
Back and forth my feelings was pacin'
Happy deep down but not joyed
Enough to have it
But even that's a lie in less than two weeks
We was back at it
Is this unprotected love or safe
To say it's lust
Bustin', more than the sweat
In somebody you trust or is it that we don't
Trust each other enough and believe
Havin' this child'll make us
Have to stay together
Girl I want you in my life
Cause you have made it better
Thinkin' we all in love cause we
Can spend a day together
We talkin' spendin' the rest of our lives
It's too many black women that
Can say they mothers
But can't say that they wives
I wouldn't chose any other
To mother my understanding
But I want our parenthood
To come from planning
It's so much in my life that's undone
We gotta see eye to eye, about family
Before we can become one
If you had decided to have it
The situation I wouldn't run from
But I'm walkin', findin' myself in my God
So I can, discipline my son with my rod
Not have a judge tellin' me how
And when to raise my seed
Though his death was at our greed
With no one else to blame
I had a book of African names
Case our minds changed
You say your period hasn't came
And lately I've been sleepy
So quit smokin' the weed and the
Beadies and let's have this boy

I never dreamed you'd leave in summer
You said you would be here when it rained
Why didn't you stay
I never dreamed you'd leave in summer
Now the situations made things change
Why didn't you stay