Beauty’s just another word
I’m never certain how to spell
Go tell the nurse to turn the TV back on
And throw away my misery
It never meant that much to me
It never sent a Get Well card

I broke like a bad joke
Somebody’s uncle told
At a wedding reception in 1972
Where a little boy under a table with cake in his hair
Stared at the grown-up feet as they danced and swayed

And his father laughed and talked on the long ride home
And his mother laughed and talked on the long ride home
And he thought about how everyone dies someday
And when tomorrow gets here where will yesterday be
And fell asleep in his brand-new winter coat

Buy me a shiny new machine
That runs on lies and gasoline
And all those batteries we stole from smoke-alarms
And disassembles my despair
It never took me anywhere
It never once bought me a drink

–from “Reconstruction” (lyrics by John K. Samson)