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It breaks my heart. I watch the kids come in for swimming, badminton, pickleball, table tennis and other sports. On the surface, it looks like pure joy—bright faces, laughter, and the energetic bustle of play. But when you sit still long enough, when you truly watch and pause to speak with them, a different layer reveals itself.

A quiet ache runs beneath the noise, tucked inside their small voices. It hurts to sense the pain they don’t put into words—to notice how they miss their mothers, how their eyes keep searching the room for someone who isn’t there. That silent emptiness doesn’t leave them; it lingers at their side even as they laugh, run, and play.

Carrying that weight inside me, unable to shake it, I wrote this song.

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(Verse 1)
In hollow halls where echoes weep,
A child lies still, too scared to sleep.
Chandeliers glow, so cold, so bright,
Can’t warm a heart in the endless night.
Servants’ hands, they try to care,
But mother’s love—nothing compares.

(Chorus)
Oh, shadows of gold, they cut like a knife,
Empty hearts in the chill of the night.
No coin can heal where love’s been torn,
No wealth can hold a child forlorn.
A mother’s warmth, a father’s call,
Irreplaceable, but where are they all?
In palaces cold, we’re left to roam,
Orphans of love, without a home.

(Verse 2)
Banquets gleam, but seats stay bare,
No father’s voice to calm the prayer.
Mother’s laugh, a fleeting dream,
Lost in the rush of her golden stream.
We’re raised by hands that don’t know our pain,
Carrying scars we can’t yet name.

(Chorus)
Oh, shadows of gold, they cut like a knife,
Empty hearts in the chill of the night.
No coin can heal where love’s been torn,
No wealth can hold a child forlorn.
A mother’s warmth, a father’s call,
Irreplaceable, but where are they all?
In palaces cold, we’re left to roam,
Orphans of love, without a home.

(Bridge)
What’s a heart, left to break alone,
Carving its grief on a bed of stone?
Oh, parents, do you even see,
The ghosts we’ve become in your legacy?

(Outro)
Through lifeless halls, we call your name,
Shadows of gold, they’ll fade in shame.
Love’s the truth we’ll always crave,
A wound unhealed, an empty grave.

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