This town is full of escapees
From life's little voodoo tapestries
And we sit and smoke
Like threads without a needle

And like ants tethered to lanterns
On that bypass abuzz behind the grass
Our brethren are spiraling into
The run-out groove

He is fingers in my mantle-dust
As he dips below the line
To leave me with my one reverie
That I fall with him
Into a deep forget

This town is full of amputees
Married to the ghosts of the touch of things
And we sew ourselves a likeness
To carry all our needles

And like fireflies ensnared
In little jars on quarter-acre candy stands
The stories electric
They patter in the corners

He is fingers in my mantle-dust
As he dips below the line
To leave me with my one reverie
That I fall with him
Into a deep forget

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Be there, would you
Until the bookshelves stand barren
And the walls reveal secrets
Under damp and faded, peeling
Prints of rose?

Be there, would you
Until the foxes have the fireplace
The brambles seal the doors
And the moths reside
In your old wedding clothes?

Be there, would you
Until the morning does not call
The crusty shades like pennies
In the windows of our house upon the hill

Be there, would you
Until the cars all rest like bulls
The grass entwines the engines
Their rusty eyes still staring
Down the drive?

Be there, would you
Until the floor has turned to flour
And the strays have claimed the oven
And the cupboards hang like
The old man’s broken teeth?

Be there, would you
Until the morning does not call
The crusty shades like pennies
In the windows of our house upon the hill

Be there until
The sky has claimed the staircase,
One banister is all,
Its softened hardwood named
By your young hand?

Be there, would you
Until the morning does not call
The crusty shades like pennies
In the windows of our house upon the hill


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Look at these
These are my bones
The valleys and hills
Beneath my clothes

This river of ribs
Landscape of me
an atlas undone
What do you see?

Am I the coming of the storm for you
Or the shelter from the storm?
All the trees I tried to grow
In my field of bones
Are still standing
Close to breaking
Like they were never home

your tree of life
your rib to spare
bones, bones everywhere
and none has made you man
and none has made you man

beneath this storm
its reign of rust
my marrow whisper
turns to dust

I've grown this Eden
with blood and tears
my gate of bones
will greet you here

Am I the desert rose for you
or the rising of the tide?
All the seeds I tried to sow
In this field of bones
Have risen
almost broken
Like this was never home

your tree of life
your rib to spare
bones, bones everywhere
and none has made you man
and none has made you man
and none has made you man

© Brendan Bonsack & Angie LaPaglia

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Weeks into years, years into lives
Welcome signs hanged on every town

Towns into mist, mist out to the sea
We could be stones if we had to be

I am through with counting
Counting up the days
That I've been counting down

I see me in his car, all youth and reckless hands,
Staring at me, startled, and wondering who I am

I want to tell you, double, to leave him now and go
But I know you'll want him twice as much
And then say I told you so

I am through with counting
Counting up the days
That I've been counting down

Minutes into months, months into years
Closing signs clothing every town

Train inside an hour, he'll be out for days
They laid and numbered all these sleepers
Up to this very day

I am through with counting
Counting up the days
That I've been counting down



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My wife, I have done a terrible thing
The ink had barely dried
And I was standing in a ruined home
By a grieving mother's side

There was a cruel constriction
Like a hill fire in my chest
Like there was not enough oxygen
In the room for all of us

My wife, will you still love me
Now that history has my hand
I declare I had no choice in this
I am just scoured by the wind

My wife, I have done a terrible thing
The paper in my hand
My hill fire spread throughout the House
In the ayes of every man

And for a moment I was naked
My suit a bloodied rag
And children cried for water
But I could not feel my hands

My wife, will you still love me
Now that history has my hand
I declare I had no choice in this
I am just scoured by the wind

My wife, I have done a terrible thing
I shook the hands of men
And women 'ranged in crisp white clothes
Like bowling alley pins

And my pockets filled with water
And though the cameras didn't see
I could not speak for all the ocean
Swallowed down in me

My wife, will you still love me
Now that history has my hand
I declare I had no choice in this
I am just scoured by the wind


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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.

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I wanted so to wish you well
On that road out into the dust
Where the wildflowers defy the rusty soil
And pose in peppered crescendi

And I wanted so to gather you up close
On our side of the line
But I know there has been gathering an old, insistent song
In that band between land and the sky

We held you - don't you know - we held you
Like the finest spider mesh
Around a suffering of sparrows
Still the feathers linger

There's a marker way out there
When the haze begins to clear
I've heard it said that you'll know it
By the changing of the birds

And the sea will roar promises
That the land could never keep
And draw around you like a curtain fallen
Before the show begins

We held you - don't you know - we held you
Like the finest spider mesh
Around a suffering of sparrows
Still the feathers linger

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Embers rise into the dark and then
Swirl and kiss and are never seen again
Fingers rise, curious, to count them,
Catch them before allowing the stars to snatch them

Noiseless, they plunge from their deck
As it twists and cackles and shrieks in the flame,
Wild with desire to hold purchase on the light
That burns them and forced their escape.

And there's you, and there's me,
observing the scene of this graceful and terrified
stream of refugees,
smoke in our eyes, stars under our feet,
we are only accidental bedfellows

Fire for the water
Fire for the water
I need some fire for the water in me
Give me fire for the water in me

I've waded into the shallows and tried to appear deep,
Penetrated your sleeping hours when you were not around to see;
Do my songs settle in your ears as you're lashed around your mast,
As I strike across your timbers, your wake caressing me apart?

And if I could carve from this beach another hour, another week
from those fawning little waves and rocks,
For every weighted arm that comes to rest around me
I count backwards from sixty
And I do it a lot.

Fire for the water
Fire for the water
I need some fire for the water in me
Give me fire for the water in me

Embers fall into the stars and then
Swirl and dance and kiss
And are never seen again.
Fingers rise, curious, to count them,
Catch them, hold them.

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My head
Fuzzy like a peach
Body a narrowed nude

At the window
Tugging at tangled strings
Of the knotted shades

I must look to you
Like a crash test dummy
Unveiling the view
Of our wall
You, a framed Botticelli,
Reclined in flowing flannelette
And the wistful glare of a princess bared
Down to her last cigarette

My face
Swept like a beach
A canvas denuded

And the window
Color devoured by sea's
Voracious wind

I must look to you
Like a crash test dummy
Unveiling the view
Of our wall
You, a framed Morelli,
Reclined in flowing flannelette
And the wistful glare of a princess bared
Down to her last cigarette

My hands
Scaled like a creature
Taller once and revered

At the window
A posy of birds
Offering song

I must look to you
Like a crash test dummy
Unveiling the view
Of our wall
You, a framed Modigliani,
Reclined in flowing flannelette
And the wistful glare of a princess bared
Down to her last cigarette

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I measure out her sugar, a little extra for the spoon
Here's another Wednesday and I'm a stranger in the room
Plastic roses drinking wandering shadows of the water
That worm their ways beneath the frame of a man froze in laughter

Grandma was alive in 1955, with whiskey, boys and cigarettes and her skirt above her thighs
Needle in the groove in those rock 'n roll rooms of smoke and perspiration, cry –
Ooooh, sweetheart, it's 1955
Spin me like a record, honey, and say we'll never die
We're never gonna die, no we're never gonna die

In twilight days at the edge of the bed,
She would watch her husband carefully undress
His penis just there like an estranged relative
And she would feel the very smallness of the room
There would be no fire in his leaving
No broken plates, no slamming doors
No other woman to despise or to envy
She would just find him on the floor

Grandma was alive in 1955
Every day above her lover's bed a king stood crucified
Her mother in her head like a cat whines at the door
You will learn, my daughter, sigh –
Oh, sweetheart, it's 1955
I came with just a suitcase just to see that you survived, just to see that you survived
Just to see that you survived

Grandma was alive in 1955, with whiskey, boys and cigarettes and her skirt above her thighs
Needle in the groove in those rock 'n roll rooms of smoke and perspiration, cry –
Ooooh, sweetheart, it's 1955
Spin me like a record, honey, and say we'll never die
We're never gonna die, no we're never gonna die

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There were these trees of poems
That all the women knew
And they took their sailors to them
'neath a blue and dusty moon

And remembering that magic
Passed from a mother to her girl
They deftly palmed their wedding bands
And straightened out their curls

They would say:
Speak to me, sailor
Here are the words -
They're growing all over the trees -
My heart is a cravin' someone who will shake 'em
And shower us will all of its leaves

Some sailors got lost in the jungle
Their ears still ringing from the storm
Of the smoke and the noise
As the captain's fine boys
Tossed them o'erboard

They found these strange trees in the jungle
Each leaf bore a regal visage
And that is the day that money was born
And they could tell this was gonna be large

And they said:
Speak to me Money
Cut me a road and a rail
Through the trees -
My heart is laden with violence
And cravin' a castle on the cliffs by the sea

There were these trees of poems
That all the women knew
And they'd trek with their sailors into this place
And kick off their dusty shoes

But this time the sailors had got there first
With their pouches of fiscal seeds
And their saws and chains
And efficient little trains
And a new definition of weeds

Now, I hear it said from the sea to the city
If you want to bed a sailor
You will not get it for free
No - you've gotta shake his tree

It'll shower you with money
The meter will be running
And of words he will have no need -
Of words he has no more need
Not from that ol' poet tree
Not from that ol' poetry

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Here is a table and here is a chair
Here is a head to hold up your hair
Here is a pencil and here is a sword
Which do you use to get what you want?
Here are two string hands

Here is an angel to dance on your sill
She says that she'll fall if your thoughts are she will
You've five days to catch her and two days to wish
That you just couldn't see her
But you keep making lists
And she's on every one.

Here it is - here it is -
Smoke in your fingernails, name in a tree
Shards of green grass on the back of your neck
Saying yes please - please, yes please
Here it is - here it is.

Here are your fingers with their fine loops of string,
Delicate nooses for memories of things
See how they multiply and savagely twist
Upwards to rub and to scratch at your wrists
While binding your thumbs

Here it is - here it is -

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I've been waking very early and with urgent despatch
You can feel so very brittle till there's a house upon your back
My feet have gotten harder, though they never touch the ground
I hold memory in my hand but I don't know what to do
With all the things that I remember now

And you know you've invented the wheel
When you feel that you've been rolled
And you know you've discovered money
When you feel that you've been sold
And just what is that dripping sound that follows me around?

I've been sleeping very lately as insects tap against the light
I'm everybody's creature of habit and of choice,
A creature of the day and the night
Grandma, I'm eating all my veges, at least that's what I think they are
They've got meds for the fire in my belly and pills for the aching in my heart

And you know you've invented matches
When you feel that you've been burned
And you know you've discovered money
When your body has to be earned
And just what is that dripping sound
That follows me around?

And you know you've invented the gods
When you finally predict the rain
And you know you've discovered money
When you need to predict it again
And just what is that dripping sound
That always follows me around?

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When they tightened the screws
And dotted the lines,
Pulled back the flap
To let in the sunshine
I felt love, love, love, love, love.

Love for the ant with the load on his back,
Love for the man on his bike,
Fish-like and perspirationalised.
Love for the teller with the soft, beaten smile,
Pressed under glass like a leaf
I felt love, love, love, love, love.

Oooooh, the light is so bright,
Everything is alight,
But I think I'm alright

Love for the runners of kites with their strings,
Fishing in a sea upside-down,
Love, love, love, love, love.
Love for the star that sears my neck,
Stubborn as a haiku,
Love, love, love, love, love.

Leaves fall down,
Leaves are brown and gray -
Have love for the leaves.

River flows down,
Bubbles chatter madly -
So much noise!

Oooooh, the light is so bright,
Everything is alight,
But I think I'm alright

When they tightened the day around my starry nights
And joined all those specks the lines that were left
Spelled love, love, love, love, love.
Love for the egg with her infinite cracks,
Love for the spoon - the promises it makes
Love, love, love, love, love.
Love, love, love, love, love.
Love, love, love, love, love.
Love, love, love, love, love.



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I’m sure this was the place
The house of God
With its flat tin roof
And ample parking space
And its one oak knotted as a psalm

I’m sure this was the place
The brown couch lawn
And old hoist crooked
Ever slightly as a crow
The one garment pending the fall

Hmm, like our fathers before
And their fathers before them too
Hmm, I have stared into space
Till everything looked brand new

I’m sure this was the place
A salt-licked caravan
Wild sprawling figs coursed
With their slow adrenaline
And the idling engine of the sea

Hmm, like our fathers before
And their fathers before them too
Hmm, I have stared into space
Till everything looked brand new
But I’m sure this was the place

I’m sure this was the place
The trickle river’s end
Ferns written deep in the rocks
Like withered open hands
And the one swimmer with a belly full of fall

Hmm, like our fathers before
And their fathers before them too
Hmm, I have stared into space
Till everything looked brand new
But I’m sure this was the place

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We were stones, we were stones
And we found a hidden love
As we were floating

I was the sighing of the city
As the last bus crossed the bridge
You were more the calling of the river
Through the railing

Time, oh, time
You see it now and then
Time is all the people
Who you'll never hold again

I didn't know that I was drowning
I could just see a rippled glow
Digging at the surface
For some way to get below

There's a moment where you feel
You've scattered all the pieces of the moon
But there's really no such stone
Could ever break her

Time, oh, time
You see it now and then
Time is just the people
Who you'll never hold again

There is what we know as breathing
And what we know as breath
And the two don't know each other
Until one of them has left

And on the backseat drive under flying lights
My clothes still soaking wet
I could hear my body singing:
Don't you ever now forget

Time, oh, time
You see it now and then
Time is all the people
Who you'll never hold again

Time, oh, time
You see it now and then
Time is all the people
Who you'll never hold again

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Are my eyes too open or in the wrong direction?
Are my wounds too token, am I not forgiven?
I've had this meat inside my belly since before that
I was born.

Shake me, make me, gently break me
Fluid fingers overtake me
Lift me, fly me, oh I cry -
Me oh my, I think that I can
Hear you rattling deep inside me,
hypodermis saintly find me,
Blood beneath your leaves
I'm just another twist in your tree.

Angels in crushed velour
Lose a day upon the hour
A piece of string for ev'ry star
Our stellar gallows tease the ground

Why is your head shaking?
Why are your hearts breaking?
I am only half-awake
And half of me is dream

Shake me, make me, gently break me
Fluid fingers overtake me
Lift me, fly me, oh I cry -
Me oh my, I think that I can
Hear you rattling deep inside me,
hypodermis saintly find me,
Blood beneath your leaves
I'm just another twist in your

Shake me, make me, gently break me
Fluid fingers overtake me
Lift me, fly me, oh I cry -
Me oh my, I think that I can
Hear you rattling deep inside me,
hypodermis saintly find me,
Blood beneath your leaves
I'm just another twist in your tree.

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Those who were just standing
Were thought to be insane
By those who could hear the music and were dancing
And those under the floor
With broomsticks in their fists
Were thought to lack a little understanding

With strings and metals
And the flesh of the tree
The tinkerers are still searching
For the sounds in their dreams

We were never naked
Til we invented clothes
Then we had to find the music in our shoes
We were never naked
Til we invented clothes
Then we had to find the music in our shoes

Those that slipped off their shoes
And held them to their ears
Were thought to be insane
By the dancers
And those with a wall at their back
Dreaming of laces and leather
Would one day be kings
With the invention of things
That caged all the music forever

With strings and metals
And the flesh of the tree
The tinkerers are still searching
For the sounds in their dreams

We were never naked
Til we invented clothes
Then we had to find the music in our shoes
We were never naked
Til we invented clothes
Then we had to find the music in our shoes

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Sort me like a letter
Penned in such a rush
Of passion and abandon
And marked return to sender
And in limbo

She was not inclined
To wash away the dirt
She liked its weight upon her skin
Her own piece of the earth

She said I don't do sex
And I don't do conversation
When you come to see me
Leave your body at the door
A human's such a brittle thing
I don't know what I did
In a past life to be one

Well she wants to be the only song
You've ever ever sung
All those words like bees
On your tongue
Dangerous, unsung

And our love is like a collar
Let us slip it from the neck
Of this creature and then banish it
And see what happens next

She said I don't do sex
And I don't do conversation
When you come to see me
Leave your body at the door
A human's such a brittle thing
I don't know what I did
In a past life to be one

And they say that love is falling
But I never fell in love
I was stone cold still
And it just tangled round me
And everybody told me it was weeds
But I guess that was enough

They say that love is falling
But I never fell in love
I was stone cold still
And it just tangled round me
And everybody told me it was weeds

So sort me like a letter
Penned in such a rush
Of passion and abandon
And mark return to sender
And in limbo

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