my name is leslie ann levine my mother birthed me down a dry ravine my mother birthed me far too soon born at nine and dead at noon fifteen years gone now i still wander this parapet and shake my rattle bone fifteen years gone now i still cling to the petticoats of the girl who died with me on the roof above the streets the only love i've known 's a chimney sweep lost and lodged inside a flue back in 1842 fifteen years gone now i still wail from these catacombs and curse my mother's name fifteen years gone now still a wastrel mesallied has brought this fate on me my name is leslie ann levine i've got no one left to mourn for me my body lies inside its grave in a ditch not far away fifteen years gone now i still wander this parapet and shake my rattle bone fifteen years gone now i still cling to the petticoats of the girl who died with me