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