Some Lovely Parting Gifts - Marathon

Gonna wipe this crowbar clean

And pry off my face

I’ll roll up my sleeves and dig around

Until i find the stains

And shampoo my soiled brains

Old yellow gauze, a rusty scalpel

And some cheap whiskey

The tools for this home remedy

Students stuffed in classroom pockets

But something’s out of place

Words are leaking out his sockets

Words he was supposed to memorize

Better get the compass, this one needs redirection

Soon they plugged me with ambition

Pulp from textbooks soaked in fiction

I feasted on competition

Congratulations, you’re this years champion

Cue the announcer, please tell him what he’s won

Letters validate the tests

Numbers to see who’s the best

Now I understand that life’s just a contest

Black mortarboard, a wooden ruler

And papers marked with A’s

The tools that taught me to think straight

Now I don’t call out the answers

I’m the host, I ask the questions

Raise your hand, who knows the answer?

Be the first to press your buzzer

Watch my eyes as you call out the answer

See them twinkle as i smile

Watch the scoreboard when you get the answer

Lights will flash and cymbals will crash

Confetti rains down from the sky

So tell him what he’s won

A lifetime on the run

Pursuing number one

Red grading pens

Gray chain-link fence

Mental detentions

The tools that left these stains