The Woman Downstairs

Chicago is where the woman downstairs
Starved herself to death last summer
Her boyfriend Ted ate hot dogs
And wept with the gray rats out on the fire escapeIn a thrift store chair I drank cases of beer
And dreamed of lying down on the el tracks
The trains roared by under smoke-gray skies
Lake Michigan rose and fell like a birdAnd when the wind screamed up Ashland Avenue
The corner bars were full by noon
And the old stew bums sliding down their stools
Ate boiled eggs and fed beer to the dogsThe woman downstairs lost all her hair
And wore a beret in the laundry room
I borrowed her soap and bought her a Coke
But she left it on a dryer