The Splendid World

This year’s robin’s breast is not as red
The entire nest is underfed
Every bed I’ve made has broken down
The AA meeting is letting out
From the parking lot where my mother let me try out
Driving my grandfather’s car when I was just fourteen
If the splendid world wants to end and rid us
I wish it’d just get on with it and forbid us
I can’t keep track of what I own
My brightest day was poisonous but agile
And then you decay in a way so fragile
In the sticky shade with an ice cream cone
Whatever happened to the little sailboat
We kept behind the shed but only once made float?
I used to climb upon it onto the roof
And now the earwigs climb the trashcan
I figure I’ll become a sort of watery man
Pissing in my night backyard
Distributing the proof
You can keep a record of all your meals
And the way that each day feels
Safe and well-preserved in some hidden cavity
But all your private and precious locales
All your hidden heavens and all your pals
Are gonna succumb to the brutal gravity
Baby I know
The splendid world is immune to flattery
It burst me on the sidewalk like a run-over battery
All my metallic innards come pooling out
To try to name this is to be less famous
If I were dumber and detestable I’d be more successful
But on the sharp scorched grass there’s nothing else to sing about