I had three friends in Gotham, And one of them is dead. And one of them has palsy And cannot leave his bed.
And now I know the other Will soon desert me too, And end his days in Sing Sing, For something he will do.
Samuel Hoffenstein’s speaker counts his three New York friends with a calm, almost offhand sadness. One is already dead, another is paralyzed by palsy and confined to bed, and the third, he is sure, will soon leave him too—not by choice, but because he will commit some crime and be sent to Sing…
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