They did their best to pull my arms through the sleeves of my black wool dress in this ungodly heat

they led me down the hall we passed your room on the way i found the place you'd taken your crayons to the wall and i could still hear me saying

i am your mother why won't you listen to me? be like your brother come here and sit by me

i am bombarded by smiles launched by faces i don't know and they hover for a while and i'm grateful when they go

they'll drift back to their lives they'll change out of these clothes husbands'll cling to their wives in the night and they'll hold their children too close

and pray that they're not the mother to be the last one to leave let it be any other anyone but me cuz i am that mother why won't they listen to me? be like your brother come here and comfort me

cuz i am your mother why won't you listen to me? cuz i am your mother and it should have been me