Wildflower

In a tenement near the Henry Hudson River

From my favorite spot on a rusting fire escape

I would look below and see Mario

Braving the ferocious dandelions

Mario our fearless superintendent

Kept the garden green, despite the parkway smog

But the flowering weeds

Their fates decreed

Pulled, to keep his rosebush from dying

Then I would creep inside, curl up in my bed

Something strong was pulling at my head

Pulling at my heart…

Wildflower, growing in all the wrong places

Wildflower, so lowly neath that lovely rosebush

Proper garden's nightmare, queen of open fields

Tell me, who will love this wildflower

For exactly what she is?

Years passed by, we left that red brick building

Left Mario behind

For a brand new house

But my dark brown skin

On the white washed walls within

Stood out, so it'd get me up and cryin'

My growing pains had many rooms to fill then

Mother never knew

Had a garden to keep clean

While there was N.Y. Grease

On the young flower from the Middle East

She was busy pulling dandelions

Then I would creep inside, curl up in my bed

Something strong was pulling at my head

Pulling at my heart…

Wildflower, growing in all the wrong places

Wildflower, so lowly 'neath that lovely rosebush

Proper garden's nightmare, queen of open fields

Tell me, who will love this wildflower

For exactly what she is?