Lakewood Oakie

By Joe Gardner

I live here, this is my home

This was the home
Of my fathers before me

Back when the family
Came here to escape
The Dust Bowl nightmare
Great Depression misery
2nd generation American
Dirty barefoot Oakie trash
Go back go back go back
Border state bastards
Go back

No room for us here
No hope for us there
No chicken in the pot
No pot to squat and piss in
Nothing to do
But survive the
GOLDEN YEAR TO CALIFORNIAN CITIZENSHIP

Pick fruit all the way down the valley
Make the way
To the coast
Work the docks lumberyards
Aero-space union fed jobs
Get up good come up quick
Buy a home in the world’s first
Sub-division

Shopping centers and schools
River regulated by Army Corps of Engineers
Lots of Navy work and Navy boys
Spending Navy dollars
Grand influence to economy driving
Like Cal Worthington
Back then
Till he died
Carrying his own paper
Putting everyone behind the wheel
Of The American Dream,
A big V8 roaring along the new freeways of modern inspiration connecting everyone
And everything to the Promised Land
For the Greatest Generation