Litvinoff's Book

There's a tall tale of two cities,
and its all in double-dutch

Some two-bit hustler
double-crossed the heavenly twins

One with his lily-white boys
(They're too-too and he's too soon; too much)

The other brother would have doubled up
and quit for just two pins

But with deuces wild the Jack was aced,
decked by the old one two

When he threw snake-eyes
they were holding all the cards

Down Casenove Road,
Where first offenders find their second chances few

There's Bobbies bicycling
two by two towards New Scotland Yard.

So like two Heirophants
dispensing double visions,
double talk

The dopplegangsters,
living by their binary code

Lead Jack Spot,
Rachmann and Lord Boothby
in a two step Lamberth Walk

Off to a Looking-Glass House
(two up, two down) back in Vallance Road

But there's two sides to every story
and the door to every cell

Two wrongs to every right;
two backs to every beast

And now they've looked at life from both sides
it's a sentence hard to spell:

Double your money in the City,
but you'd best think twice down East

And the muscle is bunched
in the Carpenter's Arms
In their opposite corners
sit Justice and Crime
But in matters of grievance
or bodily harm
They're like peas in a pod,
or the sides of a dime.

As law condemns larceny,
kettles call pots
Much better than one
their crop number two heads
>From the Blind Beggar,
someone receives a black spot
They say two can keep secrets
if one of them's dead.

VOLTAR