Flat Dweller's Lament
By Berton Braley.
The people downstairs are a sample
Of cranks of the crankiest sort;
They always complain that we trample
And pound on the floor just for sport.
They claim we are making a riot
Which only police can dispell;
They knock on the steam pipes for quiet,
And kick to the landlord as well.
The people upstairs they are crude ones,
The people upstairs they are brutes;
Their manners are noisy and rude ones,
They shake the whole house with their boots.
They toss around trunks by the dozens,
They tip over tables and chairs
As they romp with their friends and their cousins—
These clamorous people upstairs.
The people downstairs do not love us;
Our ways they are prone to condemn.
Yet if they were lodged up above us
We'd probably kick about them.
While those who at present are dwelling
Above us, increasing our cares,
About all our ways would be yelling
If they were the people downstairs!
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1966, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 57 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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