Gloomy hall entrance wide
playground, for the little child,
wooden floor stairs so high
reaches up to the sky.
Footsteps cross ceiling floor
life goes on behind each door,
sounds of life smell of death
venom pours from every breath.
Plaintiff singing on the stair
carries, in the cabbage air,
drunken voices trouble starts,
pictures of the Sacred Heart.
Backyard faucets rusty brown
buckets carried up and down,
outdoor toilets dank and grey
broken bulb lights the way.
Filthy cellar wino’s din,
Broken lock invites them in,
Empty bottles, squealing rat,
Nasty boot kicks the cat.
Granite steps a concert stage
pretty girls of every age
singing , sweetly in lament
nightingales of the tenement.
Sunlight filters Spanish lace
lighting up this gloomy place,
warming ,shining , sweeping gloom
palace made of a single room.