I wrote this song after spending a long night in the ER waiting room when my 95 year old mom fell. There is no experience quite like pulling an all-nighter in an inner-city ER waiting room. The people and events described in this song are not fabricated. They are each a part of this song and my lived experience and my life is much richer for having experienced it. I am truly blessed to have my health and to have the benefits of good health insurance when I need it. Most of the people I met that night are the forgotten ones who truly do fall through the cracks.
Took Mama to the E-R, she was ninety-five,
Hit her head on the floor, didn’t think she’d survive
They wheeled her away, said, “We’ll call you in soon,”
And left me in a hell called “the waiting room.”
I found me a spot real close to the door,
Cause I looked like a freak from a boutique store
Old Navy hoodie and hip Birkenstocks
When the guy next to me had holes in his socks
[chorus]
I’m just sittin’ here waitin’ in the land care forgot,
Where the sick come to linger and the lame come to rot.
They said it’d be quick — just an hour or two
But I’m weary and worn with these Waitin’ Room Blues.
Here’s a man, he must’ve been four hundred pounds,
Started prayin’ in tongues for the folks all around.
But as he offered up praise, hands raised in the air,
His bladder let loose right there in his chair.
Nobody blinked, was it a sign from the Lord?
Or just a strange baptism in the E-R Ward.
Then a mad man bust in through the double glass door
He cussed and he yelled as he rolled down the floor
So I pulled my cap down over my eyes
While the broken and battered kept rollin’ inside.
I pulled out Doritos from deep in my pack,
And suddenly eyes started starin me back.
In fifteen seconds those Doritos were gone,
And I saw out the door it was already dawn
I’m just sittin’ here waitin’ in the land care forgot,
Where the sick come to linger and the lame come to rot.
They said it’d be quick — just an hour or two
But I’m weary and worn with these Waitin’ Room Blues.
I’m still sittin’ here waitin’ in the land of the lost,
Where compassion runs dry at humanity’s cost
They fall through the cracks They can’t pay the dues
So I hum this old chorus of the Waitin’ Room Blues.
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