Punchlines

I wish I'd been pretty or a punchline If you're going to play it best be for keeps my friend "Where are us young people going? Into hot molten winds, like hips in motion The archways skeletal crumbling into the sand" I'd rather be a handkerchief than a funny home video The barkeeps and regulars focused on the TV Cheer mournfully The man in the box once waged wars when there were none In their company His initials cascade across and back into the pinball machine I'm not a princess or a mannequin Got a lot of what it takes and strings at the limbs Like a bird's nest or bowling pins Got a lot of what it takes to get along again ' I'm no empress, or a pseudonym Got a lot of what it takes, neither king nor kingpin Just wordless on sprawling tin Got a lot of what it takes to get along again my friend Seesaw where the chimney sweep sleeps While singing saws weep for the evening Though they crave grotesquery the crowd agrees to part And into houses collapsing- There's sweeping fire and dust to breath Lining our lungs alongside popcorn and nicotine Close to the pyre, enough to read the headlines As they curl under logs like rinds Collected baseball caps Glum and ceremonious Between the moosehead and mousetraps With Andy standing on his desk, only in virtual spaces now and never in jest Got a lot of what it takes to get along Canned laughter and makeup Might ease the strain of excessive distance and time Got a lot of what it takes to get along I lack the grace for saving This surplus and wreckage are mine to forsake