In a tenement near the Henry Hudson River From my favorite spot on a rusting fire escape I would look below and see Mario Braving the ferocious dandelions Mario our fearless superintendent Kept the garden green, despite the parkway smog But the flowering weeds Their fates decreed Pulled, to keep his rosebush from dying Then I would creep inside, curl up in my bed Something strong was pulling at my head Pulling at my heart Wildflower, growing in all the wrong places Wildflower, so lowly neath that lovely rosebush Proper garden's nightmare, queen of open fields Tell me, who will love this wildflower For exactly what she is? Years passed by, we left that red brick building Left Mario behind For a brand new house But my dark brown skin On the white washed walls within Stood out, so it'd get me up and cryin' My growing pains had many rooms to fill then Mother never knew Had a garden to keep clean While there was N.Y. Grease On the young flower from the Middle East She was busy pulling dandelions Then I would creep inside, curl up in my bed Something strong was pulling at my head Pulling at my heart Wildflower, growing in all the wrong places Wildflower, so lowly 'neath that lovely rosebush Proper garden's nightmare, queen of open fields Tell me, who will love this wildflower For exactly what she is?