let's ditch this teleprompt jack in not off
& see betty conquers all down at the gala
drop a cigarette butt catch the down train
mood lighting blue & the matinee is mine
burning pinafores & firing sinatra bullets
she's the betty barbarian meteor showers
busted with a can of toke by mum in 1979
there's no coming back for the apprentice
catalogued in her cinematic yawnography
the ineluctable groves of bruised lipsticks
a crash dummy spat from platform 10 out
where betty was last seen calling me home
on her invisible two-way dreams of fame
who's got a dog for the little girls playing
jacks on these front steps of mad jenny's
uncle's & what's a girl to do on a summer
day now the boys are out riding drinking
lying shooting cheating sunset highways
& drive-by drive-in saturdays & westing
crawling out of a moonscape nightingale
severing heads & eyelids betty's suicides
remain inexplicable videos documentary
sending chili down the blazes of lawyers
& friends she met at parties offering her
shares in a beach house (she's no barbie
never learnt to surf dive or skate lay turf
her memory's working class bandannas
made for wiping make-up off in trailers
winter shoots robins in the dead boughs
betty's like an elm without a shady lane
a shoulder with no arm wrapped around
it midnight in the lonely suburban street
the bitumen's still warm & the TV's loud
tickets to the show have all sold out now
love song request on her dad's old radio
singing come on home mum coz we still
miss you haven't had a postcard since my
graduation are you sure you're okay girl
i'll be back in just a second make a break
before she returns & we won't miss you
as long as you come home straight after
the movie love you honey bye now betty