Heart of Gold Writer’s Cramp

Heart of Gold Writer’s Cramp

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Growing up in Berkeley
In a dysfunctional family
With an aloof distant dour,
Germanic politician father

And a wild alcoholic mother
Two brothers who hated me
And an indifferent sister

I escaped my family
To be adopted
By my best friend’s family


Ruth was the matriarch
Of the family
Bob was the father
But she ruled the roost

She was a Buddhist nun
He was a communist
Real estate agent

She had a proverbial
Heart of gold
When my own family forget
My 18th birthday

She whipped up a cake
And they all celebrated
My birthday

Robert was my best friend
Along with his brother Daniel,
Mardi his older sister
And Babe the youngest sister

And their animals
Lenin, Mao, and Stalin
The three communist comrade cats
Trotsky the Trotskian dog
Two proletarian monkeys,
Two revolutionary parrots,
Fish, the worker hamster,
Wild birds, and other creatures.


60 years ago
This wild leftist only in Berkeley family
Adopted me as one of their own
They live on in my heart.


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A HEART OF GOLD

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