When she said, "Don't waste your words, they're just lies," I cried she was deaf
As she worked on my face till breaking my eyes, then said, "What else you got left?"
It was then that I got up to leave, but she said, "Don't forget,
Everybody must give something back for something they get."
I stood there and hummed, I tapped on her drum, I asked her, "How come?"
And she buttoned her boot and straightened her suit, then she said, "Don't get cute."
So I forced my hands in my pockets and felt with my thumbs
And gallantly handed her my very last piece of gum.
She threw me outside, I stood in the dirt where everyone walked,
And, after finding that I'd forgotten my shirt, I went back and knocked.
I waited in the hallway, she went to get it, and I tried to make sense
Out of that picture of you in your wheelchair that leaned up against –
Her Jamaican rum and, when she did come, I asked her for some.
She said, "No, dear." I said, "Your words aren't clear, you better spit out your plum."
She screamed till her face got so red, then she fell on the floor,
And I covered her up and then thought I'll go look through her drawer.
And when I was through, I filled up my shoe and brought it to you.
And you––you took me in, you loved me then, you never wasted time.
And I––I never took much, I never asked for your crutch, now don't ask for mine.