The Days of Pearly Spencer
A tenement, a dirty street
Walked and worn by shoeless feet

Inside it's long and so complete
Watched by a shivering sun
Old eyes in a small child's face

Watching as the shadows race
Through walls and cracks and 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
Through eyes that neither know nor care
Where the grass is 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 rot gut gin
You 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
The race is almost run


A tenement, a dirty street
Remember worn and shoeless feet

Remember how you stood to beat
The way your life had gone
So Pearly don't you shed more tears

For those best forgotten years
Those tenements are memories
Of where you've risen from


The days of Pearly Spencer
The race is almost run