Where Will You Sleep Tonight?

Where will you sleep tonight in this hard season

O girl that wears three rings in either ear

And silver studs in tender lip

Where will you sleep tonight?

In some shop doorway marked by passing dogs

Part sheltered from the prying wind.

At Covent Garden sitting at ease in glittering tiers,

How easily the wealthy weep

For a factory girl called Carmen,

Or Mimi with that dreadful cough

And Butterfly, a single mum

Let down by careless lover

How easily the tears can flow

For Violetta, alone and lost in bed-sit land.

The taxis come the taxis go

The polished Bentleys whisper past

Taking their women to warm beds.

Where will you sleep tonight

In this hard season.