Oakland Bues

3 in the morning almost
can't sleep
so I'll post
a most delicate poem

Let's see my moves in only the last year
it's going to be frightful I know
so many places-oh dear

It all started in New Paltz
should I say maybe I was done
I moved on to DC
Thinking that I was home

'twas not to be so
for my mother alas got sick
Father calls me desperatly
tells me get on over here but quick

I go to the distant land
 that brought me into the world
I spend time with mother
not knowing what was to unfold

Apparently things got better
so the doctors they say
but we know how they lie
it's the sick that always pay

Back to the States I return
pass my licensing exam
only to be called back again
and to deal with doctor's scam

My mother dies in November
the fourth to be exact
I return to the States
all of me in severe shock

Back to DC I return
Bethesda is more accurate
life for me has no meaning
I've been thrown to the mat

Jobs galore I find
they don't bring any relief
if my mother is dead
I'll go somewhere to grieve

California is the place
my daughter comes along
she soon leaves me
her boyfriend's house is her own

So I continue to struggle
and to do what's right
end up in a mistake
which fooled me with delight

Nightmare it becomes
and soon I'm going insane
I've not grieved at all
it all feels like a game

Husband gets here finally
we try to sort things out
to Oakland then it is
let's ghetto it on out

No more excuses for me
here I wil abide
I'll work and play and shop
until I can finally retire

In ten or  fifteen years
 I would like to go home
be in the ancestral house
that with my grandfather shone

but I know how these things go
we plan the Goddess laughs

And to this resilient trunk
I will add a bunch of grafts

As a good gardener always does