Slum Children

Slum Children written by William Henry Davies

From "Songs of Joy", 1911

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Your songs at night a drunkard sings,
Stones, sticks and rags your daily flowers;
Like fishes' lips, a bluey white,
Such lips, poor mites, are yours.

Poor little things, so sad and solemn,
Whose lives are passed in human crowds -
When in the water I can see
Heaven with a flock of clouds.

Poor little mites that breathe foul air,
Where garbage chokes the sink and drain -
Now when the hawthorn smells so sweet,
Wet with the summer rain.

But few of ye will live for long;
Ye are but small new islands seen,
To disappear before your lives
Can grow and be made green.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.