(Welcome to Casio Pier. We apologise if, for any reason, the 20th century is lost on you.)
Every breath of air reeks of youth even the doughnuts are only just being born. And there are colours so bright, on things so badly painted
Screaming at nothing, just to hear yourself screaming. Night sky backdrop, yours now. Friendly gunshots ring cartoon bells, and there's nothing to bring you
(Down) Through the gaps in the wooden slats
(Down) Between the rusted girders
(Down) Into the briny black
(Down) Where the GRUESOMES grunt and murmur
So many threats in that slimy silence
The swollen prouds and the shrinking violents
And no Cousteau would ever go
To where those THINGS still run the show
There's a bulging, blistered, barnacled thing
With leaking, gummy mess of eye
A reeking, scummy, unspeakable thing
Whose stink could sicken a stink-fly
A thing with goals that seem absurd
Given that it basically looks like a turd
And over there, the worst disgrace
An awful thing that HAS YOUR FACE!
A glass-bottomed boat can be a double-edged sword
Exposing THINGS perhaps best ignored
The handout never mentioned Stygian muck
So let's get ashore before we all chuck
(Up) On our teacher's corduroy knees
(Up) On the Head of Humanities
(Up) Into our parents' SUVs
(Up) We may have caught a waterborne disease!
(For me, though, the main thing was that everyone got home OK. I honestly don't see what difference it makes whether any of us ever talked about it afterwards.)