Uncle Lloyd

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

Dad had brought him into our house

They didn't want him anymore

He helped us work the family business

Building fences in the sun

Worked just like a man of twenty

'Til the working day was done

He and Dad would spend their evening

Sitting in lawn chairs in the yard

Where they'd drink a toast to Seagram's

Seagram's never went down hard

Won't you wake up Uncle Lloyd

Got a lot of work today

We'll get Don to make the coffee

Load that truck and be on your way

Friday night you can drive to Vegas

Maybe this time you will win

Buy a trailer by the river

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And you won't have to work again

He was sleeping in the workroom

With 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

Heard 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

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