Radio Ghosts

So I'm retreating to a shack
In the woods to grow
Bonsai mangroves in margarine lids
The way they sit
Fettered in a fingery sun light in the morning
Honed by dew-licked pane
I’m retreating to find you again

You know the road
The road's there still
You park your car, it rolls up the hill
All the tourists come to try
Is it just a trick of the trees and the sky?
Static on the AM and FM dial
The radio ghosts greet me as I pass by:
Welcome to the old world -- it's been a while

In saliva lines of spiders
Feigning buttress in the corners
And the slow drop knell where faucets fail
Effect on cause of iron
Sink the rust rings
Rings and rings and
Rings out in the hall

You know the road
The road's there still
You park your car, it rolls up the hill
All the tourists come to try
Is it just a trick of the trees and the sky?
Static on the AM and FM dial
The radio ghosts greet me as I pass by:
Welcome to the old world -- it's been a while

So I'm retreating to a shack
In the woods to grow bonsai mangroves
I’m retreating to find you again

~ Brendan Bonsack

Oh, Firefly

The last time I was here
A fire had just come
Streaks of black as tall as silence
Arising from the snow

My heart had drummed the world has ended
I was one of the lucky ones
To live to see the tiny tendrils
Green and vivid from the bark

Oh, firefly, does it feel like
Death at every change?
You seem to have this all in hand
So I’m asking for a friend

I still see us in his bedroom
Where we would laugh and play guitar
He tied a knot around his illness
His mother found him hanging there

Oh, firefly, does it feel like
Death at every change?
You seem to have this all in hand
So I’m asking for a friend

I'm sorry, I didn't recognise you
I've been away for some time
You've grown your name with a hyphen
I've shaved the sparkle from my eyes

Oh, firefly, does it feel like
Death at every change?
You seem to have this all in hand
So I’m asking for a friend

~ Brendan Bonsack

Afterlife

You say you know it's springtime
By the heading of the ducks
On the water
On the water

Can I tell what year it is
By looking at the sun
You ask me
Squinting

When you drop into my dreams
You seem so full of life
I never have the heart
To tell you that you are gone
And I guess for you then
So am I

I say, you missed the latest plague
By a handful of months
You wouldn't know me
I am older

You're still looking for your father
I say there's still no news
That I can tell you
That I could tell you

When you drop into my dreams
You seem so full of life
I never have the heart
To tell you that you are gone
And I guess for you then
So am I

The humidity is unbearable
The insects are so loud
I never see another soul
Where did everybody go?
Where does everybody go?

You say you know it's springtime
By the tickle of the grass
In my voice
In my voice

And you want to show me something
So we should climb this tree
Although it's high
So very high

When you drop into my dreams
You seem so full of life
I never have the heart
To tell you that you are gone
And I guess for you then
So am I

~ Brendan Bonsack

Reservoir Bicycles

I got a brand new bike
Well, it's not new, it was pulled from the res
With a rope you stole
From the building site by a hole in the fence

Down by the pines
You know the best mud holes
Where the crayfish bite
Stockings and line
Stale bacon hands, you know how to
Twist off the claws before they get you

And we ride
To the place where you swear
The aliens landed
You can still see the circles
And footprints strange in the ground
We gotta get home
Before the sun goes down
We gotta get home
Before the sun goes down

You got a bruise on your eye
You say you'll be alright
It's from your dad again
I thought he must be cool
When you told us all in school
He was a driver on the trains

He once hit a boy
Who ran on the tracks from nowhere
You moved from the city to here
You ask do I pray
Your mum's always saying we should
And please be at table for when
Your father gets in

And we ride
To the place where you swear
The aliens landed
You can still see the circles
And footprints strange in the ground
We gotta get home
Before the sun goes down
We gotta get home
Before the sun goes down

~ Brendan Bonsack

Pea-green Sea Boat

The Piggy-wig gazed
At a pea-green sea
The couple
It seemed, were not coming

And he sat on the hill
By the last Bong-tree
Upon crates full of mince
And of honey

Said the Turkey, how long
Should we wait for their song
The song
Of the Pussy and Owl

To ring through the glare
And find us both here
Two runcible friends
Pork and fowl?

The Piggy-wig winced
And, slicing a quince
From its wrapper
They’d bought for a pound

Noted, again
Just how long, my dear friend
He’d been eyeing the sea
For the drowned

A year and a day
Maybe five, true to say
He had sat
With a strung out guitar

Penning nasally ballads
While the Turkey made salads
For a marriage
All knew couldn’t last

A bird from the floor
Of parliament, sure
Looks good to a cat
Running low

On lives, having spent
Eight of them on the rent
And tarried
With pigeons and crows

But they promise you much
Then gobble you up:
You should never
Believe in a bird

Who can turn his whole head
Full round in a circle
While Learing at you:
It’s absurd!

Said Turkey, your snout
Rung the words from my mouth
But I cluck, I shall
Wager a shilling

That a cat has more lives
But that’s simply denied
By those who are blind
Or not willing

And while we are here
Piggy-wig, wiggy dear
With your penchant
For plentiful squabbling

I say I could teach you
There are other creatures
Well versed in
The arts of gobbling.

Well, the Piggy-wig turned
His back on the bird
And sat lone
As the sunshine was setting

And there came ’cross the water
A vessel two short of
The number required
For a wedding

Like the Mary Celeste
Gently caressed
By the rhythm of
The deep green sea

It’d held a known course
Its table resourced
With a ham
And hot frozen peas

And strung to the bow
Was a note to the Owl
That the Piggy construed
To be stern

Good luck with your sailing
It said, I am bailing
It’s two hundred years
Since we ran

Away in this dinghy;
I've endured your singing
What a beautiful
Pussy I am

I am, I am
What a beautiful pussy
What a beautiful
Pussy I am

Well, I already know
What a beauty I am;
I’ve known since
The day I was born

The dots in the heavens
And prevailing winds
Are of far more
Pressing concern

While you’ve been crooning
Your nonsense tunings
To the stars above
And the moon

Did you notice me
Emptying the sea
From our leaky boat
With a spoon?

Y’see, the thing about
Lives is, it’s hard
To divine if you’ve nine
Or nine hundred more

So hey diddle diddle
The Piggy in the middle
Will sort you out
When you get to the shore

Signed, The Pussy cat,

Sincerely,
Yours

~ Brendan Bonsack

The Truth About Birds

Birds aren't real - open up your eyes
Birds aren't real - wake up and see the lies
Once, I was afraid, just believed what I was told
But now, I know the truth I am free
As free as a bird

Have you ever seen a baby
Pigeon while you're down in the park?
I bet nobody's ever asked you
It's not something you really think about

But I saw on the 'net that in the 60s
The government began killing all the birds
And replacing them with fast and feathered drones
And they watch our every move

Birds aren't real - open up your eyes
Birds aren't real - wake up and see the lies
Once, I was afraid, just believed what I was told
But now, I know the truth I am free
As free as a bird

They charge their batteries at sunset
Clamping their feet to powerlines
I'm no flat-earther, I'm no midnight choir drunk
It's just I've researched all the signs

Be good, my mother said, when I was little
Birds are Santa's spies and they'll see you
One day she disappeared in an ambulance
Then came back and told me Santa wasn't true

I'm getting old, so I remember
When the world was filled with real avian song
But listen closely now and you will hear it
Just recorded patterns looping round and round

Birds aren't real - open up your eyes
Birds aren't real - wake up and see the lies
Once, I was afraid, just believed what I was told
But now, I know the truth I am free
As free as a bird

~ Brendan Bonsack

Picnic Ground

The eucalyptus stare like they don't want me here
We know your face, you bought passage on a ship
With a barrel of sausage
You smuggled in Old England
Tried to make it fit upon the mountain
We burn you down, you keep on coming

You're a strange animal
You smell of cobblestones
You put up signs to say
Our scientific names
You put in roads just so
The tourists can go ahh, oooh, oh
Put your plastic in the bins before you go
Always coming, asking, oh what have we done?
As if you didn't know

The eucalyptus stare like they don't want me here
And then the owl with the snake in its mouth
And the lichen and the ferns
And the rocks that hold my perch
Lean round to whisper, how'd you get this south?

You're a strange animal
You smell of cobblestones
You put up signs to say
Our scientific names
You put in roads just so
The tourists can go ahh, oooh, oh
Put your plastic in the bins before you go
Always coming, asking, oh what have we done?
As if you didn't know

~ Brendan Bonsack

Runaway Sparrow

They said hello, you don't know me
I'm just someone you will love
Of all the gin joints in all the towns
I'll be on the floor above
I'll be with rope and feather for
These things I know afear you
And you will have to trust me
Complete for me to love you
And oooh, don't you need love

I was minding my own business
As you do in towns
Where everyone knows everything about you
And makes up what they don't

On the jukebox at the table
I picked Emmylou and Gram
To mess with all the people
Who came here just to dance

Strangers come and strangers go
The strangest ones become the snow
And settle on your bones into the marrow
Thawed by the sunrise but still in the throat
Of a window sill runaway sparrow

Half-price champagne on speed date night
The bureaucracies of need
Parmas, pots and trivia
And photos for the feed

I was minding my own business
On the inner side of out
When one fingernail across my wrist
Would cleave my then from now

They said hello, you don't know me
I'm just someone you will love
Of all the gin joints in all the towns
I'll be on the floor above
I'll be with rope and feather for
These things I know afear you
And you will have to trust me
Complete for me to love you
And oooh, don't you need love

~ Brendan Bonsack