(scene from my play Money From America)

 

DON’T MAKE YOUR HOUSE IN MY MIND

 Oh yes, I saw what you wanted

From the very first day we met;

Your long legs wanton in the marram grass,

You promised sex without frills,

Your instincts more mothering than you know,

You delivered it without thrills

 

After the kids came it was respectability

And a job we could grow old in;

Our own home twenty years down the road

Everything borrowed along the way;

Freedom mortgaged for a safe house

Wasn’t such a big price to pay

 

All things come to pass in time;

The kids, the home, the income,

Shared lives going down the long slide

But their passing leaves a sour taste behind;

I should have made it clear from the start,

Don’t make your house in my mind