Life in a Tenement Square

Well, I kissed the day, I was on my way
From those cold gray blocks of stone
For 17 years of squalor-filled tears
A time now and innocence lost

As the sun split the room
With it's rays filled with gloom
Turning all hope to despair
The only thing left was to flee from the nest
That was life in a tenement square, yeah

I remember the song when the rats sang along
And danced for their daily bread
While they damp washed the walls
That were twenty feet tall
Not a child in the house was fed

On the porter filled face of the men left a trace
Of the coin they had already spent
While our mothers asked God, what is hell ever for
When you live in a tenement square?

Grab what's left of the coal from the old cubbyhole
These cinders need more to be a fire
While the ghosts of the soldiers
That lived there before us
Laugh with their guns by their side
I hear them laugh with their guns by their side

Now politicians, they dwell in that forgotten hell
Our misery's been turned into muse
Where the fat of the land, now hog hand in hand
A crime now of life was ever true

As the sun split the room
With it's rays filled with gloom
Turning all hope to despair
The only thing left was to flee from the nest
That was life in a tenement square