She is sitting on a stool at The Purple Pussycat
Sipping a highball from a Coca Cola bottle
She’s wearing a white raincoat and stilettos
That’s all, just a white raincoat and stilettos
On the stairs outside there’s an argument
Between the doorman and two right villains
Next thing one geezer with a shooter comes
Through the door, robs the till, shoots the mirror
Behind the bar and runs off laughing hyena like
Me and her still sit on the corner of the counter
Clutching tightly our illegal highballls in our hands
She looks bewildered in her
White raincoat and stilettos
Totally stunning in her
White raincoat and stilettos
Nothing else, just her
White raincoat and stilettos
Outside on Gérard Street on this very early
Sunday morning warm July rain is teeming
From next door’s basement comes the noise
Of late  night Chinese poker players screaming
Our barman sweeps up broken shards of glass
She asks whether he’s got any purple hearts
I slide a small brown paper envelope across
The silver flecked black Formica counter top
She tips two blue triangle tablets in her palm
Chugs them with lukewarm scotch and coke
I watch her quivering in her
White raincoat and stilettos
Shaking like a leaf in her
White raincoat and stilettos
Nothing else, just her
White raincoat and stilettos
She turns to me and says she’s kinda worried
Says she has to tell someone what’s happened
She’s just finished working an American John
He fell off to sleep as soon as the job was done
His stacked wallet lay open at the bottom of the bed
Saw five thousand dollars, it went straight to her head
She slipped on her white raincoat and stiletto shoes
Grabbed the money from the wallet, ran to the Pussycat
God she’s so excited, never seen so much cash before
I’m feeling slightly blocked as she shows me her score
She looks triumphant in her
White raincoat and stilettos
So super lively in her
White raincoat and stilettos
Nothing else, just her
White raincoat and stilettos

Harry Rogers, in the old study some time in 2015.