The Knucklehead Ballet

 This is a weird one that’s something of an experiment - where I can’t figure out whether to call it final or scrap it all together.  Can’t say it’s my favorite, and can’t quite hit delete…so here it is.  With a name like “Knucklehead Ballet” it automatically feels…odd.

I envision this one as a 3/4 time with some carnival style background instrumentation.  

The music in the background 

sounds unfamiliar

Though it’s a song 

I feel like I should know

There’s spinning and dancing

And fussing and prancing

and I can’t help but laugh

At the silliness of it all

We could call it culture, 

you could call it great art

An observational production 

where everyone plays a part

It’s open casting, each day it’s someone new

A show every morning, sometimes several by noon

Such a long standing run, there’s shows every day

The foolishness and gymnastics of the knucklehead ballet

The knucklehead ballet

In the theater of life

Every moment of folly

We’re watching it live

And some hope, and some think

And some never learn, 

Oh the moments we’d take back

If we could see them the way

They come across 

in the knucklehead ballet

Every day the theater’s open 

to all who would come

you’d be surprised 

at the wide casting call, 

And all the corners they come from

People you might know, up on the stage

Painted and costumed and put on display

Shouting or barking or making a scene

Swaying and moving and causing a fuss

Aren’t you just glad it ain’t’ one of us

It seems all so proper until viewed from afar

Yet somehow the blind spot looms rather large

There’s cracks in the makeup 

and the tone makes you cringe  

The lines aren’t quite right

and something seems somewhat unhinged 

What occurs on the stage 

in the knucklehead ballet

The knucklehead ballet

In the theater of life

Every moment of weakness

We’re watching it live

And some hope, and some think

And some never learn, 

Oh the moments we’d take back

If we could see them the way

They come across 

in the knucklehead ballet

Oh, You could tell by the posture 

that this one should be good

They’re winding up to something 

wiser folks never would

They’re about to break out, 

about to make this scene

And It’s easy to say 

Just how foolish they’ve been

Seeing just how it looks 

out here once again

But the actors here 

They just can’t see the turn

The way each of their lines 

will come back to burn

And by the time they’re all done 

They’ll wish they’d never been,

The act on display 

at the knucklehead ballet.

Oh such a surprise, 

I can’t believe what I see,

When the actor in the looking glass,

Looks an awful lot like me.  

it’s easy to think its all someone else

But even in the image’s distorted reflection

I see myself

Looking in the mirror 

at tonight’s headlining star

I can’t help but be reminded, 

some days the knucklehead is me.