Fränz Müller

Twenty-Sixth Ward Bank

Quiet huddled shivers

flesh behind steel beneath rock;

oxygen depletion, narcotic quivers

shrieking confusion, horrible shock!

Thoughts of the stoop, the heroin fog

the twenty-third street, forty-first row;

the interesting man in the interesting mode

with baggage in hand, disciples in tow,

speaking, soothing, converting with a touch;

leading the lamb to the charnel house

the slow bricking, the stifling death!