Crooked Houses (of Armitage Avenue)

The old crooked houses of Armitage Avenue
Tumble their way to the sky
Between the cafes where we've had our black coffee
Every morning since early July
They stumble along between riverfront factories
With smokestacks rising behind
That look just like chimneys that send silver smoke
Up into the red flannel sky
And you can get me so twisted me up
You can just make me feel so blue
Until I feel just as crooked
As the old crooked houses
Of Armitage Avenue

The old crooked houses of Armitage Avenue
Have normally seen better days
With their old Queen Anne turrets and Mansard roof shingles
That have fallen into disarray
You can see all the cracks in the paint jobs
From the bus stop across the street
In the windows you can see the remodeling jobs
That they'll probably never complete
And I'm a little bit busted myself
I've been coughing forever, it's true
But I camouflage nicely
With the old crooked houses
On Armitage Avenue

The doors barely hang on the hinges
And the bedrock was never that good
And lately I've been feeling roughly as useful
As a fire escape made out of wood

The old crooked houses of Armitage Avenue
Come from Victorian times
They're full of old people and old thrift store cookware
And ancient garage sale finds
In the morning the old women come to the porches
To sweep up the overnight leaves
While the old men stay in, stumble down to the sofa
To turn on the morning tv
And I'll wait here at this bus stop
As long as Im waiting with you
Til I'm one more old person in the old crooked houses
Of Armitage Avenue