I woke up one morning in my aunt’s car
To find that my mother had gone very far
Had slipped away quietly late last night
No reason at all, not even a fight

She wasn’t in London, not in LA
Paris, Toronto, New York or Green Bay
Europe was a plan she had tossed aside
She wanted to go, but deep down inside
She knew that her home was here safe with me
So why did she leave, I could not see

My mama had gone to cities and towns
Had traveled the country cross-wise and down
Had lifted herself from nothing at all
To someone who could sing on stage and stand tall
She had given to me, all that I had
And never wept for my long lost dad

But a desperate man had come in the night
Who chose to steal, but was given a fright
By my mother, who was home all alone
She ran in a panic, her hand on the phone

Too keep his own picture out of the books
He gave my mother one final look
And lifted a gun he held in his hand
The neighbors downstairs heard my mother land
On the tile floor, her life at an end
Not knowing the source, or for whom to send

So here I sit listening to my aunt
Who thinks that I can, but knows that I can’t
Grasp that my mother has left me at three
After all she had done to be here with me.