Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/103

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MY NEIGHBORS
101

V

My Garret, Montparnasse,

June 1914.

MY NEIGHBORS

To rest my fagged brain now and then,
When wearied of my proper labors,
I lay aside my lagging pen
And get to thinking on my neighbors;
For, oh, around my garret den
There’s woe and poverty a-plenty,
And life’s so interesting when
A lad is only two-and-twenty.


Now, there’s that artist gaunt and wan,
A little card his door adorning;
It reads: “Je ne suis pour personne,”
A very frank and fitting warning.
I fear he’s in a sorry plight;
He starves, I think, too proud to borrow,
I hear him moaning every night:
Maybe they’ll find him dead to-morrow.

Room 4

THE PAINTER CHAP

He gives me such a bold and curious look,
That young American across the way,