Dead cats & dogs lying in the rotting water
Sewage spread around, torn walls which harbour
Wandering murderers, drug addicts & smugglers
The alley was perfectly safe for these toxic wanderers

The one and only rule they were to follow,
Do not thwart others & one's own job they wallow
Either no friends nor do they make a foe
Or be a loyal chum & reap as they sow

Their life always in a peril & death doesn't amaze
Their nights, toiling hours; & lairs were the days
Confounding & menacing, such different their ways
The wanderers & the alley, no less than a maze

**© by Ruman Hafsa