University of Virginia Library

AN IDYL OF THE SLUMS

Daughter.
How the stench reeks from that piled garbage there,
Out in the courtyard at the alley's end!
I can't sleep—Mother, are you still dead-drunk?

Mother.
No. What 's o'clock, Jess?

Daughter.
Clock? We 've got no clock.
You pawned it yesterday to buy more drink.

Mother.
Yes, I remember.

Daughter.
Mother, you believe
There 's a God somewhere, don't you?

Mother.
Go to sleep.

Daughter.
I can't. I keep so wishing I was well,
Not stung with this dry cough that splits my throat,
Not lame of an ankle, not so cursed with scabs
On hips, breasts, eyelids. I'm half blind, sometimes,
The rank sores weigh and drag so. Mother, hark:
Is there a God? A God that cares, I mean.

Mother.
Go to sleep.

Daughter.
Now, if I was like Nell Page!
She 's got a clean pink skin and big blue eyes.
Last night a sailor stopped her in the street
And took her to a place where they had beer,
Cheese, meat—you know the rest. But when we met,
Why, Nell was merry as a canary-bird
While its cage brims with sun. I 'd get a meal,
A ribbon, and things to light up life a bit,
If I 'd Nell's eyes and skin. The meanest man
Won't give me one kind look. Say, mother, say—
Is there a God?

Mother.
Go to sleep, rattle-tongue!
Curse ye, to keep me awake!

Daughter.
Oh, I was cursed
Before you 'd brought me forth. Folks tell me blunt
That this weak sick maimed body o' mine was made
All by my father. Yes, folks tell me blunt
He 'd put some filthy poison in his blood.
Where is my father? Do you know for sure?

Mother.
Go to sleep, brat, or else I'll crack your skull
With the old rusted axe—I swear I will!

Daughter.
How the lice pester! Oh, I'll soon sleep sound!
Yet, ah, before then I 'd so like to face
That father o' mine and shame him if I could,
With this poor twisted piteous little shape,
With these red sores that itch and burn me so.
I'm sure, though he were scarlet from raw drink
As you are now, I 'd bring a kind o' a new
Flush to his bloated cheeks, once harrying him
With the hurt thing he 's made me. Come, now; say
Who is my father? Tell me; you must know.

Mother
(drowsily).
Go—to—sleep. ‘Who 's—your—father?’ I—forget.