A Human Resource

I'm just calling up to tell you
That I finally got a job
For an HR firm
Don't know what anybody does

I don't really fit the suit
But I am saving up for one
That looks like all the others
When the elevator doors go

Ping ping ping
Ping ping ping ping...

I'm just calling up to tell you
That I'm finally off the meds
Well, not exactly off
But can afford a better brand

And I've started meditation
Every Tuesday after work
And maybe it's just as well
The telephones are hell when they

Ring ring ring...

And do I make you proud?

I'm just calling up to tell you
That I finally got a job
For an HR firm
Don't know what anybody does

I am calling up to say to you
A sparrow comes to see
Me every day at lunch
From behind the safety glass

In her scruffy feather jacket
And our little piece of sun
Scrapes across my desk
To light my sandwich crumbs
And she

Sings sings sings...

~ Brendan Bonsack

Rabbit Rabbit

the nurses told you, momma dear
you're baby's old beyond its years
shoulders last and river stones
mind the way the wind is blowing
when you sing the babe to life

here's med'cine for untangling
here's med'cine for the sleep
stethoscopic heart, it learns
counting over breathing sounds
and every word of rabbit song

rabbit rabbit
ten times fast
never never shower over claws
under the bath
rabbit over
and over soft
which was first?
the rabbit was

the firstly kiss, it was not right
opposing poles bumped in the night
rabbit rabbit fold me blind
vow to me a love to find
wipe the tattoo from my lips

op shops lend the dead new faces
burning shirts of old embraces
rabbit rabbit light my match
read my flames and tell me that
something perfect this way comes

rabbit rabbit
ten times fast
never never shower over claws
under the bath
rabbit over
and over soft
which was first?
the rabbit was

the nurses down the stairs to smoke
wrap me hard and steal me home
headlight hares and momma croons
alone along the road in blue

rabbit rabbit
ten times fast
never never shower over claws
under the bath
rabbit over
and over soft
which was first?
the rabbit was

~ Brendan Bonsack

Age of Stone (part IV)

Does everybody come here
To your drying room
Where magpies bloom
A song outside your window?

Does everybody come here
To leave their shoulder mark
Where the cushions part
On a sofa soft with story?

Don't tell me I'm the first
Don't tell me I'm the last
Just kiss me into the age of stone
And lie with me here
While all the other ages pass

Does everybody come here
To your kitchen sink
And the wraiths of steam
And the cutlery rattling "pick me"?

Does everybody come here
Their arms so weighed
With the end of days
To lift them to your shoulders?

Don't tell me I'm the first
Don't tell me I'm the last
Just kiss me into the age of stone
And lie with me here
While all the other ages pass

Don't tell me I'm the first
Don't tell me I'm the last
And please don't tell me

That everybody comes here
To press their brow to yours
By the loosened door
And the hallway drenched in autumn

That everybody comes here
With a memory of
All they had ever loved
And leaves had never fallen

Don't tell me I'm the first
Don't tell me I'm the last
Just kiss me into the age of stone
And lie with me here
While all the other ages pass

~ Brendan Bonsack

Here it is (green green grass)

Here is a window
and here is the light
Here gathered are the things
that she stole in the dead of night

Here is an angel
in a shiny black coat
Her eyes say I'm falling
but her smile says I won't

And here is your old neck
strung up by the hairs
That stand to attention
whenever she is near

Here it is, here it is
Smoke in your fingernails
Name in a tree
Shards of green green grass
Saying please, please, please
Yes, please

Here are your causes
and here are your effects
They drip drip drip from your hands
like weeds through a fence

And here is your angel
bearing nails and buried screws
And five cent bits and paperclips
as if they were meant for you


Here it is, here it is
Smoke in your fingernails
Name in a tree
Shards of green green grass
Saying please, please, please
Yes, please

~ Brendan Bonsack

Taken Places

The spoons have taken places
Where the knives should have been
And my table's getting tired
Of taking you between its legs
And the light oh the light
Swaying overhead can bathe you now without getting wet

My keys are all eroding
From the grinding in the locks
But I was always loathe to cut a spare
Should I forget just where it was
And the night oh the night
Swimming overhead
Bathes me like a river-mouth
And pours me into bed

My dreams they
Have you entangled they
Like the drowning they
Reach for their breath they
And want to forget they

Machines have glided under
To occupy your touch
My fingers too have loved them
These concubines of such
Delight and sweetly woven dread
That smooths me like a morning cigarette

The knives have took to hiding
Where the spoons were within
And the carpets dust for prints
Around your heels
And the tight little loops of thread
Kissed the skin you walk upon
And rallied in the square

~ Brendan Bonsack

The Show Without Tell

We will meet again
Time is like that
There will be a bridge
And a touch of moonlight

The hairs on my arms
Seed burst upright
Tips capped with dew
And then I will ask you

What do people do
This far in the future
To show without tell
That they love one another?

And you will give me this place
In lieu of an answer
And draw your coat
Softly around

~ Brendan Bonsack

Town of Ghosts

We live in a ghost town
We live with our ghosts
Gave 'em names
Got a gift shop
And all the tourists come
A seance on the hour
Their souvenir terror

Take the selfies
Leave the litter
Plates o' paper
Bottled water
Disappear
Disappear

To the lights in the valley
Platelets on the highway
Yellow red yellow blurry
Leave us to our sleepy
Our knots along the ceiling
Our splintery, leave
Us with our sleeps

Take the selfies
Leave the litter
Plates o' paper
Bottled water
Disappear
Disappear

We live in a ghost town
We live with our ghosts
Gave 'em tales
Got a tea room
And all the tourists come

Take the selfies
Leave the litter
Plates o' paper
Bottled water
Disappear
Disappear

We live in a ghost town
We roll our own ghosts
Of paper white faces
Paper over the other
Blood red in the river
Nice place for the houses

Take the selfies
Leave the litter
Plates o' paper
Bottled water
Disappear
Disappear

~ Brendan Bonsack

Sea Day

Park the car between the lines
Slide down to the sea
Say to the sea, I wish I were you
Do you wish you were me?

A dog and a ball
And an old whole world
In a shell

A squall in a towel
And the ecstacy
Ice cream bell

Let the dunes swallow the day
Glide down to the sea
Say to the sea, I wish I were you
Do you wish you were me?

Anemone flails
And the rock press moist
Underfoot

A surfer scrawls
A suture through
The breakers

Hiss and rumble devour all sound
Uncoil into the sea
Say to the sea, I wish I were you
Do you wish you were me?

Sand sunk toes
Wade all the way up
To the heart

Sea, I filled
This hole in you
A perfect fit

Leave the car to bake in sun
Unroll into the sea
Say to the sea, I wish I were you
Do you wish you were me?

~ Brendan Bonsack

The Mythical Mothman

As a mothman
I always stand on trains and trams
Leave a little wing dust
On a chair these days and...
Oh how people stare
Like they'll catch a certain ...

And I fumble in my pocket
For a flame, but no
You're not even allowed
To smoke in trains, so

I tuck my wings
Their large decorative eyes
Quiet beside, like a gentle ol' man
A little behind in his dry cleaning

Here's a giddy pair
Joined at the wire, ear to ear
I could cleave them here
In a single premonition
I'm never ever wrong
That illness wove my pupa
Like a song

And I beat my
Centuries out to it
But young people in love
Can't tell 'em anything
Move along...

~ Brendan Bonsack

Drive Moon Song

Hey, then kids, there are you
Back in 1992
The world could never get more screwed
Could it?

Seize that night and fall in love
Safety pins in button holes
Be late for work and lose your job
Just do it.

I forgot, you know,
They put a man on the moon
But isn't she beautiful?
She makes me cry
How about you?

Assembly lines will run themselves
Economies of mental health
Hey, now kids, save yourselves
We blew it.

There's a song we used to sing
And argue over what it means
History is the flicker
Not the candle
And we knew it.

It was all for a war
To put a man on the moon
But isn't she beautiful?
She makes me cry
How about you?
Does she make you cry
Make you cry too?

All a song wants of you
A piece of your voice for a piece of its tune
It wants to grow old with you
Hold it.

Seize the day, now, seize the means
Be the mighty tail sting
We 90s kids want something to
Believe in

I heard, did you know?
Now they want to mine the moon
But isn't she beautiful?
She makes me cry
How about you?
Does she make you cry
Make you cry too?

~ Brendan Bonsack