Smile a while
My china baby,
Let me be your kiln,
Fire your porcelain
And
Add the sparkle to your glaze.
It’s there already painted
It only needs a spark.
Little doll, don’t you freeze,
Stuck inanimate in the ices of gloom.
As a mammoth in a glacier
Once so large, and now forgotten,
Secret in crystal skin.
Or a bug in an ice cube.
Never wonder how or why,
There’s a bug in your ice cube,
Only that it ought not to be.
You ought not to be
Sad, you see.
Okie?
Or a corpse in a frozen lake.
Petit puppet,
Mini muppet,
Cut your strings and
Sing.
You needn’t make a sound.
The sweetest song of all
Is passed by lips unopened
Just pluck the air
With your skinny smile
And the faintest chord with spread.
The faintest, warmest, kindest chord
That was ever bred.
You’re on your way now,
My clock work soldier.
You’re well wound,
You’re number’s pulled
You’re newly found
And freshly ruled.
You may not have a place to go,
But you’ve got a smile.
And always will.
And it will keep you warm and walking,
Until your cold and dead.
So smile a while,
My china baby,
And just maybe,
You’ll be a real boy yet.