﻿“Twenty Years”   
(By T-Bone Slim.)  
 
Who knows this tune? —  
Sing me a song of the “trial” of life —  
Long, weary years, weary years.  
Tell me the tale of a heartbroken wife —  
Long, weary years, weary years.  
Show me around to the graves in the fen—  
Take me again to the hovels of men—  
Let me “regale” with the slave in the “pen”—  
Long, weary years, weary years. 
Sing me a song of the torments of Hell—  
Long, weary years, weary years.  
Tell me the things that no tongue cares to tell—  
Long, weary years, weary years.  
Show me the cell where the silences swell;  
Down where ‘tis always—too late to rebel;  
Let me commune with the “numbers”—and dwell—  
Long, weary years, weary years. 
Sing me a song of a “kingdom of fear”—  
Long, weary years, weary years.  
Tell me the tale of these men “in the clear”—  
Long, weary years, weary years.  
Picture the pallor no smile come to cheer;  
Show me indeed our most damnable gear;  
Say then the word which these men wait to hear.  
Long, weary years, weary years.