PEEL THE PAINT FROM OFF THE PONY

PEEL THE PAINT FROM OFF THE PONY

Peel the paint from off the pony,
Be it acrylic or be it lead.
Bring down the curtain on the sideshow,
The carousel is dead.

Steal the shimmer from the huckster,
The baffled babbling of the barker.
His syntax has become lackluster,
His economic prospects darker.
His claims they seem outlandish in the garish light of day,
The vultures they are circling, may they carry him away.

Peel the paint from off the pony,
Everyone's too busy,
Chasing down their dimming dreams,
Their hustle makes me dizzy.
Their vocation devours and vexes,
Chase down the soothsayers, destroy their hexes.
While you're at it, show no mercy, hunt down every clown,
Wipe away the greasepaint of the men who let me down.

Dismantle the dogeared dagger,
Of the glowing knife throwing slave.
Throw out the fat and happy louts,
Say farewell to the foolish knave.
Let the creditors come with a fine tooth comb,
Finger every crucifix and pilfer the last gnome.
Take my car while you are at it,
And likewise steal my home.

Tell me this is what I get for a life in disarray.
Tell me this is all I have to show at the end of the day.
Give me nothing but the cold hard facts,
The graveyard, the inheritance tax.
The pied piper leading the pack,
Careful to pounce on every crack,
Leaving me broken, each bone in my back.
Peel the paint from off the pony,
You army of insomniacs.

Tell me this is my birthright, for better or for worse,
Tell me I have been forsaken, tell me I am cursed,
That this weariness is all I've earned for my efforts through the years,
A room that's strewn with flowers black and wallpapered with tears.
Tell me I will live forever, a hapless motionless man,
Whose eyes they feast upon the sky, whose feet are mired in quicksand.

Lay your evil hands upon my odd misshapen head,
The brain that once was pliable and held me in good stead.
Shake out every penny from the pig shaped wishing well,
Leave me here to prosper in the flaming fires of hell.
Do your damage, go your way,
Then come again another day to finish up the work,
Like some vicious pirate, like some fearsome Turk.

Raze this wasteland of a body, raze it to the ground,
Destroy every brain cell left, then leave without a sound.
Peel the paint from off the pony,
Acrylic based or lead,
Bring down the curtain on the sideshow,
The carousel is dead.

-Bruce Potts
Copyright 2013
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED