Not Leaning, Not reaching

the direction of the trees
shows a history of the light

as well
the mystery hum inside

and too
the song the breeze called by

they are not leaning
they are not reaching

they are dancing

~ Brendan Bonsack

After the Bee

We're all gonna die
The world's gonna end
We've seen it before
And we're seeing it again

I wake every morn
With a weight in my chest
Oh, you should see mine
My good doctor says

But the flower is never
The same after the bee
You climb inside me
The earth it hums
Your vivid heart
My velvet warm, and the sun
Put me here to find you

We're all gonna die
I'm losing my friends
I'm a pretty bouquet
But it hurts where the stems

Those soft swaying fields
Are in all of my dreams
Where we lean out our hearts
For that song on the breeze

For the flower is never
The same after the bee
You climb inside me
The earth it hums
Your vivid heart
My velvet warm, and the sun
Put me here to find you

We're all gonna die
It's all gonna change
There's fire in the valleys
That used to bring rain

What will we be saving
When we have to take arms?
If we must be something
We must be in love

Coz the flower is never
The same after the bee
You climb inside me
The earth it hums
Your vivid heart
My velvet warm, and the sun
Put me here to find you

~ Brendan Bonsack

What Should We Tell the Kids?

I dreamed of you last night
Our shoulders almost touching like
The way the trees
Paint cracks along the sky

I'm not sure how we
Were breathing so far underneath
And you
Turned to me with tears

I don't remember the future
Being like this
What should we tell the kids?

In the street today
People's eyes were saying
Hold me, I'm afraid
But they walked by anyway

And in the park today
A bird flew down to me as if to say
I know you're human
But could you listen anyway?

I don't remember the future
Being like this
What should we tell the kids?

I dreamed of you last night
You were safely there on the other side
And you
Were just the way you smiled

Today I was old
Enough to know a birdsong full of holes
The world is
Just asking to be loved

I don't remember the future
Being like this
What should we tell the kids?

~ Brendan Bonsack

Out There Breaching Quarantine

The railways announcer says
Chirpy and urgent, says,
Always remember to touch

Commuters have chosen their clothes
Guided by their pheromones
A trail of ants surround a doughnut

Memory, where have you been?
Out there breaching quarantine

Hands free suits talk currency jargon
Heels click among the sparrows
All of the signs say don't

I found a place where we can be alone
Says an unmade face three doors along
The sun just says catch me I'm falling

Memory, where have you been?
Out there breaching quarantine

The subway echo under Degraves
A woman, a guitar and a case of change
Here everyone comes, headlong into her music

If I could just find a pound
Here on the underground
All scuffed and fallen through time

Memory, where have you been?
Out there breaching quarantine

Memory, where have you been?
Look at you, can barely hide your grin

~ Brendan Bonsack

I Wish I Could Tell you

The whisper of the water
Ran over my palm
Turn in and try to hold me
I mean you no harm

The soft, wondrous newborn
Upon my other hand
Here is water for your everything
I do not understand

This must be the strangest
The strangest of place
I wish I could tell you
It's going to be okay
But I just don't know

Here is my heartbeat
For your ear drum
That sensation upon your cheeks
We call that the sun

When I am sinking
Lonely or afraid
I turn myself outwards
For her warmth on my face

This must be the strangest
The strangest of place
I wish I could tell you
It's going to be okay
But I just don't know

The soft, wondrous newborn
Held in my arms
This thing you're trying to tell me
We just call it love

This must be the strangest
The strangest of place
I wish I could tell you
It's going to be okay
But I just don't know

~ Brendan Bonsack

Closing My Eyes on the Up Escalator

I think it was on level three
I was thinking what do penguins dream
Do they theorize and wonder
Who it is who's shrinking the ice?

Snagged my jacket on a potted tree
I wondered what it thinks of me
Pencil and paper
And smelling of sugar and spice

Closing my eyes
On the up escalator
For the feeling alone

Is that tree up all night crying
Its fine little roots trying and trying
To remember the sounds
Of the songs of its place in the woods?

On level three there's camping supplies
A fibre glass penguin on the outside
Dressed in a jacket
Half price with a zipper and hood

Closing my eyes
On the up escalator
For the feeling alone

I think it was on level three
I was thinking what do penguins dream
While their love is away
Deep in the treacherous seas

Don't fall, or your jacket
Mamma once said
Might snag and suck you into the stairs
I'll never see you again and you will never see me

Closing my eyes
On the up escalator
For the feeling alone

Closing my eyes
On the up escalator
I don't think I'll ever come down

~ Brendan Bonsack

A Natural Selection

a young dog
bounds across
three lanes of traffic
for the simple joy
of a scent
at the foot of a tree

why do they do this,
build roads?

~ Brendan Bonsack

Their Joy

There's a bend in the creek
Where all the dogs leap in
Their joy
Leaves no holes

And over there's a bridge
Where their little toes inch
Just kids
Learning to fall

If you throw your arms
Out wide, they find,
On the way down, it feels like flying

There's a light through the leaves
Where the lovers meet
Their joy
Makes them glow

And over, there's a bird
Who's seen and overheard
Just kids
They will learn

If you wrap your arms
In tight, they find,
On the way down, it feels like dying

Hey, you! Hey, you! Hey, you
The water sings
I miss you, I love you, oh won't you
Fall into me?

There's a bend in the creek
Where all the dogs leap in
Their joy
Leaves no holes

And over there's a bridge
The water used to be so clear
Just kids
We'd never old

If you throw your arms
Out wide, we'd find,
On the way down, it feels like flying

If you wrap your arms
In tight, we'd find,
On the way down, it feels like dying

Hey you, hey you
Hey you, hey you

~ Brendan Bonsack

Everybody Hungers (2020)

Everybody here, everybody hungers
Buoyed by reveries, avoiding those of strangers
Everybody greeds,
Everybody hungers

I build a tunnel to your face
Through books and bags
And people with their papers,
Pressed, creased and laced with
Inky inky words, dusty ink
Leaching into finger prints

Your songs are yours and yours alone -
O' would I were a song within
Your private megaphones
Does everybody greed?
Does everybody hunger?

I looked across the future and I saw only pain,
A feverish cloud of passion
Then a stalking slow malaise
Then, leaning on a steering wheel
With ashen eyes and words tending to dust
And broken seals,
The noise recedes, the light congeals.

You find a tunnel to my face,
Book surrenders delicately,
Almost imperceptibly
Excepting if you're anxious to perceive
'Cos everybody greeds, everybody hungers

Eyes locked in fierce tug-o-war
You never want to be the first to fall,
Or even worse to be the first not to fall,
The universe a cotton-ball
Dry of all the possible.

I looked across the future and I saw only pain,
A feverish cloud of passion
Then a stalking slow malaise
Then, leaning on a steering wheel
With ashen eyes and words tending to dust
And broken seals,
The noise recedes, the light congeals.

~ Brendan Bonsack

Tell Me About the Revolution

Tell me about the revolution
When everybody turned to kind
The masks were lowered from the faces
The blue returned to all the skies

Tell me about the dissolution
Of the Kingdoms found on greed
The music rang in all the places
The love and dancing in the streets

The President's a fool
You really gotta wonder how he’s there
But Time has a golden rule
Nothing lasts forever
And everything gets better in the end

How a spider 'cross an awning
Felt a change in atmosphere
How the fish began returning
Feeling that the coast was clear

Tell me about the revolution
Breath back in the waters and the soils
Drums of friends replaced the rhythm
Of endless wars for drums of oil

The President's a fool
You really gotta wonder how and why
But Time has a golden rule
Nothing lasts forever
And some day the little people gonna rise

Tell me about the revolution
When everybody turned to kind
The masks were lowered from the faces
The blue returned to all the skies

How the flowers bred for fences
Flew seeds to newly fields and plains
And wound their roots so ever deeper
And reached for one another again

The President's a fool
You gotta wonder how it came to this
But Time has a golden rule
Nothing lasts forever
And everything gets better

Time has a way with fools
Nothing lasts forever
And everything gets better in the end

~ Brendan Bonsack

Sing for You

In my street so far
Fence flowers are
Blaring your name in the present tense
Yellow, yellow wide
Yellow wide as a goodbye kiss
And stride after stride, I

I don't speak magpie
But I know they sing for you
The sky is stretched defiant blue and I hum
Thank you

In my street so far
The wire sparrow are
Tapping out our days in rosy hues
Rows and rows of blooms
I'd cut them loose, but how to choose
And let all the light run from their stems?

I don't speak magpie
But I know they sing for you
The sky is stretched defiant blue and I hum
Thank you

I am tired, I think I fell
And I was lifted
As a careful stitcher pikes the linen
And gives rise to thread
So to be the garment
So set soft to rest
Along you and along
You kissed my cheek awake again

In my street so far
Fence flowers are
Blaring your name in the present tense
Yellow, yellow wide
Yellow wide as a goodbye kiss
And stride after stride, I

I don't speak magpie
But I know they sing for you
The sky is stretched defiant blue and I hum
Thank you

~ Brendan Bonsack

When Fever Comes

Such a vivid dusk
How can there be so much hurt in us?
Call it fight, call it flight
Call it love, call it lust
Call it anything you must
A night moth whispers
In spritz of dust ‒

When fever comes
You will hold out your arms
Who will it be there at the end?
Will you call
For your mother, or your lover
Or your god?
Remember me, and pass me along

Such a tender sun
Why must the heart so hard become?
Call it brave, call it wise
Call it finally and safely mine
Call it anything you like
A chill breeze whispers
This soft reprise ‒

When fever comes
You will hold out your arms
Who will it be there at the end?
Will you call
I forgive you, brother, sister, after all?
Remember me, and pass me along

Such a precious night
How is it we so rail and fight?
Call it rigour, call it pride
Call it running out of time
Call it what your heart desires
Says the whispered song
Through dandelions ‒

When fever comes
You will hold out your arms
Who will it be there at the end?
Will you call
For the warm that touched your cheek when you were small?
Remember me, and pass me along

~ Brendan Bonsack