Summer Olympics

Ugly jugglers in budgie smugglers

On the boardwalks and beaches

Compete with the unlucky busker who covers

Skynyrd and Sheeran and RHCP

I said “this is the worst music in human history

Its success is a mystery,” but just then you kissed me

And maybe you just really wanted me to stop yapping

But I forgot the musical horror show happening

 

You and me and the summer olympics on TV

Napping in the afternoon beneath the elm tree, the one with the fungal disease

Good times, bad wine, lips buzzing with the humming from the power lines

That summer with the summer olympics on TV

 

Your parents’ basement had air conditioning

And there were all kinds of interesting things,

Like the commemorative plate from your christening

And a toy from the 80s for long-distance listening

A new 9-volt and we had it working

Hid in the bushes, did some casual lurking

Pointing the antenna at the house of the cop

Who lived at the end of the block

 

It was you and me and the summer olympics on TV

Napping in the afternoon beneath the elm tree, the one with the fungal disease

Good times, bad wine, lips buzzing with the humming from the power lines

That summer with the summer olympics on TV

 

On an extra hot day with no talk and less action

We stumbled on a brand new municipal attraction

Admission was steep and it looked unpleasant

It was called “The Museum of Your Own Past, Future, and Present”

The guide was dressed in his fleece and his flannel, he pointed silently and unsmilingly at the didactic panel

Which we read in our heads and it said

We’re gonna stay together forever, but it will never get better than

You and me and the summer olympics on TV

Napping in the afternoon beneath the elm tree, dying with the fungal disease

Good times, bad wine, lips buzzing with the humming from the power lines

That summer with the summer olympics on TV