Lovers' River

I walk the river that’s made of lovers
who wished against the gods to never die

my future doesn’t know me anymore

it used to scare me blind this vision
of our parting and you growing old alone

but perhaps that wasn’t you that I saw

I know love has found you
by the way the river seems
to crawl back up the mountain
upon its hands and its knees

I’ve ceased to offer my tired body
to thread within your own

our gods no longer see eye to eye

but if memory were a lover
it would ever have your shoulders

I cry, oh god, over their precipice every night

I know love has found you
by the way we last embraced
two swirls through the stony water
and all water has to find a way

they say this river is made of lovers
who wished against the gods to never die

I walk her shore my heart parenthesized

I looked into my future
and I saw that I was not there

but it wasn’t me I was looking for anyway

I know love has found you
by the way the river seems
to crawl back up the mountain
upon its hands and its knees

I know love has found you
by the way we last embraced
two swirls through the stony water
and all water has to find a way

~ Brendan Bonsack

Age of Stone (part III)

Does everybody come here
where the curtains draw
their breath from doors
propped open by your whispers?

Does everybody come here
where cars creep by
in streaks of light
sent for saving troubled vessels?

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 leave a thumbprint in
a glass of gin
and a hairline in your shower?

Does everybody come here
by your ceiling rose
how it blooms a slow
tango through the nightfall?

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 your favorite song
and the record long
played into the run out groove

That everybody comes here
to inscribe their nom
de plume upon
a placing at your table

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