Will You Take me Down to the River?

• Will You Take me Down to the River?

Will You Take me Down to the River?

Last night I think I travelled, in the deepest hour of sleep,
To a side of your fence unfamiliar, but exactly how it would be
The driveway meets me, two arms outreached
And the house a stone in the hand
And I stand in the mist that I make from my breath
And my moon-made tinder of skin

Will you take me down to the river
Of icy depths unknown,
Our bodies afire, but we'll have no fear,
For people destined to burn can never drown
For people destined to burn can never drown

I hear your feet in the hallway, treading beneath every sound
Your gaolers scraping, turning in their linen, like silent snakes over ground,
Matchmakers who sleep with torches to keep
Every shadow aware of its name,
Do they know love has found you by how lately the walls
Have been throwing your cast away?

Will you take me down to the river
Of icy depths unknown,
Our bodies afire, but we'll have no fear,
For people destined to burn can never drown
For people destined to burn can never drown

But last night I believe that I travelled, awaking all furrowed and cold,
Laid on a crude mess of timber and strewn above me our tangles of cloth
I hear in the mist that hangs like a kiss, unrequited above your mouth
A parting of water and the call of some traveller
Who will turn all my norths into south

Are you taking him down to the river
Of icy depths unknown,
Your bodies afire, but you'll have no fear,
For people destined to burn can never drown
For people destined to burn can never drown
No people destined to burn can ever drown

© Brendan Bonsack
November 2015

1. That Line in the Sea
2. Your Child has the Heart of a Poet
3. Maralinga Blue
4. Life Insurance
5. Future First Mutual Life Insurance
6. Fallout Flowers
7. Closing Time
8. Grace
9. Will You Take me Down to the River?
10. Intimacy and the Tiny Drum
11. Old Lovers
12. A Letter from my Grandchildren
13. Remembrance

The Sea Will Take it From Here
Released June 2016