She’s a beauty queen
At nine years old
She sits on grandpa’s lap
But not in family photos
And she’s grown up porcelain
And her favorite stuffed animal
Has grown up too
With carrots, he makes quite a fine stew
There’s a crack here
And there’s a crack there
She thinks why oh why,
Must I have two strikes
She’s knitting her fingers
As her hands turn inside-out
All the food around her looks plastic
Kinda like she’s playing house
And she’s grown up delicate
And her favorite pastime
Has grown up too
With gasoline, it’ll vibrate and drive you
And all the leaky faucets
Don’t flush away the fire hoses
That pound her hard head as
She sucks her thumb and curls her toes
And she’s grown up a little off
And her pristine world
Has grown off too
With cracks, it paints the rocking chair blue
And the planes always fly on by
Breaking up any verbal exchange
As the nuns frolic in the fields
And the pigeons sing home on the range
There’s a crack here
And there’s a crack there
And there’re cracks everywhere
She’s decoration
And she feels so old
She sits on grandpa’s lap
But not in family photos