Life Story

Lyrics

[WOMAN 1] It was a liberated marriage We shared the household chores, of course We understood each other's feelings Right down to the day of our sensible divorce I didn't ask him for a penny I'd had my "liberated" training So off he went with his hair of bronze To find a life like Kahlil Gibran's I got my rest from the drugs he did He got his quest, I got the kid And oh—I'm not complaining So I set off to be a writer A modern mother on her own I wrote up happenings at galleries Turned down jobs with salaries Stayed free-lance and alone I fought the battles of the sixties (Yeah) Which, you recall, were rather draining When men were thick, I'd hit the fray Became a prick, got equal pay I faced down chauvinistic slobs I won the fights, improved the jobs And oh—I'm not complaining My husband found himself his ashram Lost forty pounds and went through hell Then one day he came back from limbo Found himself some bimbo And moved to New Rochelle I raised my son and I had lovers My choices sometimes take explaining I'd meet some jock, my friends would scoff He's stay awhile, I'd drive him off I kept my space, preserved my turf Six months—I'd send him back to surf And oh—I was not complaining So now my son's halfway through college I pay tuition like a fine I'm still this feisty free-lance writer Resume well-honed at a well-toned forty-nine I find that getting work is harder Each job I want takes more campaigning And those sweet young things who hire me know Those M.B.A.'s making ninety thou Who smile and ask what I have done When they got their jobs from the fights I won [WOMAN 1, spoken] Ah, they should all just stay home and have babies! [WOMAN 1] But I'm not complaining And in the evening at my window As I watch Jersey growing dim I feel this troubling emotion Summed up in this notion: I wish I'd stayed with him Lord knows each day with him was madness As I have spent my life maintaining But more and more I recall the joy My golden dreamer, my lost boy Our life was life in "The Twilight Zone" But no worse than a life alone And oh— Well, I chose my way And I'm not complaining