Ragged Girl At Liverpool Docks (November 1894)

In a half lit silent twilight world,
I see her form, a tiny girl,
who lost her life in times gone past,
now gently tapping on the glass,

All who ever came that way,
faceless crowds that nameless, swayed,
moved back beyond a distant town,
and dug themselves back in the ground.

“This piece of meat cut as you wish,
a small cube placed inside a dish.”
In corner shops where naked light,
closes shutters for the night.

Across the Adelphi’s shining floor,
stroll elegant ladies, plainly bored,
while bow tied fat contented men,
read false accounting in their den.

Tapping finger on the glass,
reflecting ropes tied onto masts.
Hears seven men tell twenty tales,
about the giant ships that sail.

Tossed high among a ten force gale
,spray that sweeps the shore with shale.
Tide marks beached like giant whales,
leaves driftwood sold at jumble sales.

“Let me in, I fear the tide
will sweep me from this place I hide.
Where gutter meets the cobbled stones,
I cannot find my way back home.”

Tapping fainter, fading now,
moonlight gleams on fevered brow.
Moves beyond the pool of light,
closed round by the darkening night.