A tenement, a dirty street Walked and worn by shoeless feet In silence long and so complete Watched by a shivering sun Old eyes in a small child's face Watching as the shadows race Trough walls and cracks that leave no trace And daylight's brightness shuns The days of Pearly Spencer The race is almost run Nose pressed hard on frosted glass Gazing as the swollen mass On concrete fields where grows no grass Stumbles blindly on Iron trees smother the air But withering they stand and stare Trough eyes that neither know nor care Where the grass has gone The days of Pearly Spencer The race is almost run Pearly where's your milk white skin ? What's that stubble on your chin ? It's buried in the rotgut gin You've played and lost, not won You played a house that can't be beat Now look your head's bowed in defeat You walked too far along the street Where only rats can run The days of Pearly Spencer The race is almost run The days of Pearly Spencer The race is almost run