Newtown, Jackson and Main

• Newtown, Jackson and Main

Newtown, Jackson and Main

On the corner of Main and Jackson
There's ninety new spaces for cars
See the soaking wind-up people
With their dangling plastic bags

How they move through the kitchen
With the laughter and the smells
Steam in the afternoon sunlight
Kids running in from the lawn

How they move through the bathroom
Where that simple sheet of glass
Would plot the lines around ours eyes
And plant the grey in rows

I will wait here on the corner
To the scraping of wet rubber blades
By Paradise Paving and Garden Supplies
On the corner of Jackson and Main

On the corner of Main and Jackson
Trolleys herded into lines
See the people fighting for
Some land just nine feet wide

They're fighting in the bedroom
Where electric fans would sweep
Our whetted skins and tangled lips
In our state of the ruffled sheets

They're shouting in the hallway
At the bottom of the stairs
Where we'd hugged with not much left to say
Oh, your shoulders, kitbag and gear

I will wait here on the corner
To the drumming of wiper blades
By Little Saigon Noodles N Grill
On the corner of Jackson and Main

On the corner of Main and Jackson
Our house at number ten
And the sound of the postman still burns in my legs
Still, after all these years

Under fast food giant icons
There, buried deep in the ground
The eggcups and plates that I had to bequeath
To the birth of old Newtown

I will wait here on the corner
To the rhythm of window blades
At the Bella Vista Mall down by
The corner of Jackson and Main
At the Bella Vista Mall down by
The corner of Jackson and Main

© Brendan Bonsack
July 2014

1. Levee
2. Thirteen
3. Aunt Tacita
4. Flannelette Princess
5. Newtown, Jackson and Main
6. Declaration
7. Call it Home
8. Age of Stone (part ii)
9. Something Borrowed, Something Found
10. No Edges

Once Was Water
Released July 2014