Heat

• Heat

Heat

We spill into a heat, the kind
That makes the pavements glow
That final cloud, left behind,
A face slid off the bone

Your cigarettes revere you, see?
As you draw each into your mouth
Oh, to be the one you chose
To burn the whole place down

Your shirt, a river from the mountains
Who came to your shoulders to fall
And you bore it with stains and no buttons remained
The collars eroded and torn

The sunlight reveres you, see?
Flames in the waves of your hair
The pavement softens for the souls of your boots
To write you were always here

The desiccated palings of the fences and the lawns
And the crab-like kids in sprinklers
Their mothers withered and gone
Into a place with their heads in their arms

We spill into a heat, the kind
The eucalypts all distrust
Immovable as bones, so white
And buried above the dust

Your cigarettes revere you, see?
As you draw each into your mouth
Oh, to be the one you chose
To burn the whole place down

© Brendan Bonsack
February 2015

1. National Anthem
2. Heat
3. Unemployed Statesman
4. Time

Land
Released February 2015