Uncle Lloyd

He was not my father's brother but he wished that he could be Told us kids to call him Uncle and we would be his family He had a wife and kids in Fresno, the youngest one was twenty-four Daddy brought him into our house, they didn't want him anymore He helped us work the family business building fences in the sun He worked just like a man of twenty until the working day was done He and Dad would spend their Evenings sittin' in lawn chairs in the yard Where they'd drink and toast to Seagram's, Seagram's never went down hard Won't you wake up, Uncle Lloyd We've got a lot of work today We'll get Don to make the coffee Load that truck and be on our way Friday night you can drive to Vegas Maybe this time you will win Buy a trailer by the river And you won't have to work again He was sleeping in the workroom on a mattress on the floor When one night I heard him crying as I passed outside his door He cried, "Rita, girl, I love you! Rita, darling, please don't go "I've tried hard to make you happy; I've done everything I know" Then I heard the bottle open, the tipping up and putting down And the rustling of the covers, then he did not make a sound I thought of thirty years of Rita standing sternly by his side All the years of hanging in there and all the emptiness inside Then I thought of how their children have children of their own And how a man at fifty-seven winds up living so alone Won't you wake up, Uncle Lloyd We've got a lot of work today We'll get Don to make the coffee Load that truck and be on our way Friday night you can drive to Vegas Maybe this time you will win Buy a trailer by the river And you won't have to work again (Oh, you'll never work again)