the streets are merciless
they don't care if you confess
to the most desperate crimes
or stoop to pick up nickels and dimes
phil stumbled through the night
with no coherent plan of flight
but only hoped to make his way
through the darkness into day
he had seen it all before
he had heard the oceans roar
in his drowning desperate brain
and had felt the whole worlds pain
he was the cursed one
the seventeenth son of the seventeenth son
but just as you would expect
he got no respect
in his youth he had struv
to earn the world’s love
but to his eternal shame
he could not learn the rules of the game
when emily brown, who had welcomed his advances
on bill smith cast friendly glances
phil had no veneer of civilized grace
but his passion blazed forth on his red face
emily laughed out loud
and quickly attracted a crowd
which with untrammeled hoots and jeers
derided poor phil’s primal masculine fears
phil seized emily by the throat
the onlookers quickly took note
and rescued the poor damsel
before phil could finish sending her to hell
phil was charged with assault
he hired a lawyer named walt
walt did the best he could
but the results were not good
phil testified so forlorn
but the jury reacted with scorn
to his tale of provoked passion
for such pleas were no longer in fashion
the judge brought down the hammer
phil got five years in the slammer
and as he was led away
he heard his rival bill smith say
as a law-abiding citizen i insist
that five years is a slap on the wrist
and when you get out, old son
your troubles will have only begun
emily brown went away
exactly where, no one could say
bill smith blamed phil for her fleeing
and hatred consumed his whole being
in letters to phil, bill let loose
with an endless stream of abuse
and promised phil, when let out, a harsh fate
because bill would be waiting at the gate
four years went by - and then
phil busted out of the pen!
when two true desperadoes named roger and clyde
obligingly took phil along for the ride
roger and clyde left phil by the side
of a dark road - with nowhere to run or hide
hunted - without a friend!
hunted - though the road never end!
somehow the years went by
always out of the corner of his eye
phil waited for the hand on his shoulder
as he grew slower, weaker, and older
phil somehow found employment
though he never knew what anything meant
and fell into a routine
and almost forgot who and where he had been
of desires he had only one -
to remain in oblivion
was that now to be denied?
to the pitiless sky phil cried
his cry echoed down the dark street
and the flapping of his running feet
and the bubbling in his brain
were only heard by the wind and the rain
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