Thin as a whim, soft as marmalade,
I traded my youth to learn the trade
And nailed my lines and cried on cue,
While you, the rudiments of youth pursued.
A novelty to me.

My nanny saw me on tee vee,
And read to me of Hercules, cast
Fevered from the foundry blast
Hard as a rail-spike, and I
Was asleep by prime time.

He came to mind
When every missed first kiss
Darkened the hero's heady bliss
In his Nimean armor; and I fear
My voice will crack inside a year.

The Olympian chill,
The upturned eyes adore us still
In the rarified air, but will
You know me when fame disowns me
And the heavy bargain comes due?

We saw it through,
The pain was fake, the money real,
Before the Hollywood Hydra undid the deal.
Hercules faced twelve labors for immortality,
He never faced obscurity.

Before he failed, his fate prevailed.
Real celebrity becomes betrayal,
And regrets unend, those summers to unspend.
My hero, my friend,
I should have read to the end.

Thin as a whim, soft as marmalade,
I traded my youth to learn the trade
And nailed my lines and cried on cue,
While you, the rudiments of youth, have made
A novelty of me.