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  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    these lyrics are submitted by burkul