We'll Play You Back From Memory

We’ll play you back from memory

While the wheels

Go round and round

We’ll go slow

There won’t be avalanches

Or frying pans

Or devil-may-care pirates

To rip you

From our arms

The beep beep beep

Will get softer and softer

As the radio waves

Pick up

You’ll get to stay

For one more day

As we play you back

From memory

The fleeting things

Are not the weakest

Nobody finds themselves

In towers

Nobody frets

About bells

And curses

And long, long naps

Here there’s a pear

And an apple

For lunch

Sit at a wooden table

Firm in a wooden chair

Eating with a wooden spoon

Wooden soup

And wooden friends

Life is a make-shift

Make-do

Situation

It’s not a story

Of princes and thieves

But what fairy dust

Contributes

Sticks forever

You can sleep now

You can sleep

Next week

Looks like tomorrow

And tomorrow’s

Dark, foreboding--

Steer your ship

Away

From reimagining

Two more years

A few more years

No more more years

The genie only gives

Three wishes

More than that

And you’re a greedy

Greedy

Gus

Now, aren’t you?

And if we remember

Correctly

Your name

Was never

Gus

We’ll start at the top

And play it away

But from memory

From what you

Told us

Your best place was

Up the aisle

From the movie

By the concession stand

You can have popcorn

And soda

And prizes

For not fighting

When you knew

You’d never get

To see the end

We’ll tell you

The last parts

As best we recall

You’ll have a good time

But you won’t have a ball

There’s a pillow

And a bed

And the moon

Decided

To stay in tonight

So we’ll have to do this

From memory

But like

So many other things

We’ve done

For those

We love

It all costs

A little more

Than we can afford

But that’s all right

The best way

Is the only way

And memory

Is the best way

So we’ll play you back

From memory

And that’s where

You’ll begin