Muggsy The Lard

Muggsy the lard, was raised up hard
In a school down by a river
That flowed through the city
Like a tide that flows up out of a sewer
There was Turnip the toast, his girl by boast
To his pack-rat friends that would gather
In the dark to bleed in the dark to heed
Adding comfort to one another

Well Muggsy was a fitter, to a union hard-hitter
And worked on a barge on that river
And grew like a fruit grows, a peel, both hard, tough and bitter
Stabbed in the back and sprawled in a cell
More times than he could recall them
And never heard those luxury words
Bless us, Jessus loves all men

Running in a pack and fighting in a bunch
Hearing more times than not, scum take your lunch
When a judge in a wig hat says here comes the crunch
I'm putting my black cap on for you son, I'm putting my black cap on

Well Muggsy had a mother and tenthousand other brothers
Who all lived the same by the river
An rose at that judge's words like the tide that flows up from the sewer
Mob likes the name, with fists and with flames
Adding blame on one another
They'd never heard those luxury words
Black brown and white could live together

I said poetry brothers, we may not all be lovers
Some of us have to live by the river
Some of you will have brains, come of you'll be insane
And some shall be bolder than others
But, if you keep having dreams, of violence it seems
You may've picked up a disease on your liver
Give up your crutch, move out the hutch
And make some room for another