Lyrics Langley’s Requiem - Declan O'Rourke

Langley had a house on 5th Avenue
It was a brown stone block with a third floor view
He saw the whole wide world through a magpie's eye
Took home a million things you would walk right by

Langley had a house on 5th Avenue
His brother Homer was blind and paralyzed
A hundred oranges a week would bring back his sight
Through the bundles and the boxes that were stacked as deep
As the love between two brothers, Langley watched his keep
His brother Homer was blind and paralyzed

They withdrew from the world when their parents died
And when Homer got sick, Langley only came out at night
To sift and forage, through the garbage
For food and water, things to salvage
Umbrellas and an old X-ray machine
A dozen grand pianos and a rusty spring
A hundred and eleven tons of other things

Soon, the brothers were the talk of the neighborhood
People said they had a palace that was filled with gold
In the spring of 47, the police came out
To check up on an anonymous tip they got
Soon, the brothers were the talk of the neighborhood

It took them ten days to find Langley's body there
Caught in a booby trap that he had engineered
Near 30 years of daily papers and a leaking roof
Crawling through a maze of tunnels, he made pram nor proof
To protect him and his brother from their greatest fears
Among the rubbish and the relics he had saved for years
And just some feet away from Homer, slumped down in the chair
It took them ten days to get to Langley's body there