Litvinoff’s Book

There's a tall tale of two cities, and its all in double-dutch
Some two-bit hustler double-crossed the heavenly twins
One with his lily-white boys (They're too-too and he's too soon; too much)
The other brother would have doubled up and quit for just two pins
But with deuces wild the Jack was aced, decked by the old one-two
When he threw snakes-eyes they were holding all the cards
Down Casenove Road, where first offenders find their second chances few
There's Bobbies bicycling, two by two, towards New Scotland Yard.
So like two Hierophants dispensing double visions, double talk
The dopplegangsters, living by their binary code.
Lead Jack Spot, Rachmann and Lord Boothby in a two-step Lambeth Walk
Off to a Looking-Glass House (two up, two down) back in Vallance Road
But there's two sides to every story and the door to every cell
Two wrongs to every right; two backs to every beast
And now they've looked at life from both sides it's a sentence hard to spell:
Double your money in the City, but you'd better think twice down East
And the muscle is bunched in the Carpenter's Arms
In their opposite corners sit Justice and Crime
But in matters of grievance or bodily harm
They're like peas in a pod, or the sides of a dime.
As law condemns larceny, kettles call pots
Much better than one their crop number two heads
From the Blind Beggar, someone receives a black spot
They say two can keep secrets if one of them's dead.