Time Will Claim You

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 1993.)

When will you realize
Those birds in flight that hypnotize you
Have to touch down eventually
And freedom's a state of mind
And I'm a pale compromise
Of all that country girl's big city dreams

Take the cover from the cage
And look at the creature that we've made
Of something that was once so wild
And beautiful and free

Time rolls on and I've lost count
Of all the ways we've found to surmount
The obstacles that familiarity creates
And like the clock people in their tower
Keeping watch over the treasured time
I hope that it will be

Time that will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time

Picture a willowed hill on a sun drenched day
With the whippoorwills calling up
To a sky that seems to lift you to its heart
Oh, the trees can't weep anymore
When she's there in their midst
With her eyes that seem to lift you to her heart

My plans caught and kept you
From pursuing visions that had swept you
From a town that had only ever called you friend
And now our lives are intertwined
Like the bramble and the reaching vine
And I can only hope that it will be

Time that will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time

When will you realize those birds in flight
And all they symbolize
Are just a shadow play of what you want from me
And freedom takes a precious price
It's worth its weight in sacrifice
And I can only hope that it will be

Time that will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time
Time will claim you in time

Whiskey Why

(Words & lyrics copyright Dean Bonzani 6.11.10)

Whiskey why do I want you tonight
And whiskey when will I see you again
She says she knows we've been together
Now it's up to me whether it will be you or her
Oh, whiskey why does life have to ask these kinds of questions

Whiskey why do I dream of your sweetness
And whiskey when will I taste your golden kisses
She says she'll make an upright man out of me
But she wants me to be something that I will never be
Oh, whiskey why are there tears in her eyes

Ooooooh, you make me glow inside
You drive the worries from my mind
When I'm holding you, I never want to let you go

Whiskey why do I need you
And whiskey why am I not the kind of guy who can just leave you
She says she hates what you do to me
And she has run out of every ounce of sympathy
Oh, whiskey why do I feel like a sailor who's lost at sea
Oooooh, you keep me warm inside
You drive these worries from my mind
When I'm holding you, I never want to let you go

She says she hates what you've done to me
Whiskey put me out of my misery
Oh, whiskey why all these kinds of decisions

Oh, whiskey why
Oh, whiskey why
Oh, whiskey why
Oh, whiskey why
Oh, whiskey why is she leaving

Dose

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 2003.)

Amped to the gills, look at you, honey
You need a dose of rock and roll
It's Saturday night and I'm feeling impolite
And you know just what'll make me go
There's a five piece playing and they're louder than hell
Put on your big black boots
I need some fuzzy fuzz, need some fuzzy fuzzy fuzz
And a glass of something cold and smooth
Yes, I do

Split at the seams, I can't help believing
I'm your favorite late night snack
I'm a Devil Nut Crunch bar, loaded with bad
Just look at my face on the wrapper
You're a tramp, you're a saint, you're the taste that I crave
Let's go and get a bucket of pain
I'm grinning like a snake and it's all I can take
When I see that vicious look on your face

I love you baby, like the feeling of guitar against my chest
You satisfy me like a bullet from the barrel's end
I'll love you when this world is nothing but a flaming wreck
I love you like I love the feeling of guitar against my chest

I love you like I love the feeling of guitar against my chest
You satisfy me like a bullet from the barrel's end
I'll love you when this world is nothing but a flaming wreck
I love you like I love the feeling of guitar against my chest

Spin Hippie Girl

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 1995.)

Well, the summer's here and the sun is kind
All the daisies come out to expand their minds
At the coffee bar with their accessory dogs
Their dreadloafed hair and their danish clogs

When the sun goes down they all gather up
And they go downtown
Where a groovy band is making groovy sounds
They can't resist the urge to twirl round and round

So, spin hippie girl, spin
Dance, hippie girl, dance
You always say "C'mon in. The water's fine, but
Just you watch those hands..."

You're a delicate bloom, so slender and pale
You've got no cares, 'cuz the check's in the mail
You don't worry about school
You don't worry about a job
You're too busy pasting that new Phish sticker on your daddy's Saab

Why be concerned? Why earn? Why learn?
When the joy of life is just to swirl and turn
When a groovy band is making groovy sounds
You can't resist the urge to twirl round and round

So, spin hippie girl, spin
Dance, hippie girl, dance
You always say "C'mon in. The water's fine, but
Just you watch those hands..."

Spin, hippie girl, spin
Dance, hippie girl, dance
While the world is burning, you just keep on turning
In your hippie land

Bruce Is Not A Human

(Music and words by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 1982.)

Bruce is not a human
He's an overstuffed, remote-controlled teddy bear
Never mind his vacant stare
'Cause you know there's nothing going on in there

Bruce is quite complacent
He doesn't know what's happening
He cannot smell the scent of fear
And that's what makes him happy
AND

Bruce is not a human
Bruce is not a human
Bruce is not a human
Bruce is not a human

Bruce is not a human
He's been kept in a box with an airtight lid
He doesn't know what truth is
His mind is filled with Cheez Whiz™
And his parents made him that way
And they're very proud of him
BUT

Bruce is not a human
Bruce is not a human
Bruce is not a human
Bruce is not a human

He will put him in the closet
We will keep him in the pantry
There he will be very happy
There he will be fine and dandy

Bruce is not a human
And we don't know what he is
He's not a human
And we don't know what he is
He's not a human
And we don't know what he is
He's not a human
And we don't know what he IS
WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HE IS
WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HE IS
WE DON'T KNOW WHAT HE IS

Itch

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 2011)

It's got sparkle flake
Roars like a hurricane
Rolls like an earthquake
Pretty as a rattlesnake
It's got leather from here to forever
Shines like a mothership
Barks like a bullwhip

Damn, I want it...

Thirty round clip
Don't want to stand in front of it
Black as an eclipse
On the dark side of Uranus
Wicked as a prom queen
In a continental's back seat
Spits like a cobra
Tears through anything

Damn, I want it...

Gonna rub that genie lamp
Gonna pile up some fat cash
Beg, borrow and bleed
Gonna satisfy this need
Gonna fast rope through a sky light
Navigate by the starlight
Gonna hot wire
Set it for autofire
Gonna satisfy this desire

Bigger than life
Longer than history
Hot as your buddy's wife
The source of all misery
Crushing everything in its path
Paving the road to Hell with the bones of the damned
Sought after, fought over
And like a good dog you'll roll over

Damn, I want it....

Gorby and Cherney

(Music and lyrics by Dean Bonzani, copyright 2003)

Here comes some big big juju
I can feel it through the floor
Yeah, it really gets you moving
Like an electric rubber chicken

I was saving my passion for a rainy day
But I guess I'll have to splurge
My bones seem to have a life of their own
And who am I to fight the urge
The urge
The urge
Oooooo, the urge

Feel like I'm under a microscope
Look up, and there's a great big eye
Criminy, officer— I'm just a citizen
Not a video or some kind of criminal

There's an eight-legged horse under an ashen sky
And I guess there's more where that came from
In Russia, they're growing pigs with no eyes
Them and me, we're just two of a kind
Two of a kind
Yeah, two of a kind
Big ears, and stone blind

Blind, I tell you. Blind.

Grimtown

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani copyright 2010)

You were so happy then
You had great plans
But none of them worked out
Find out who your real friends are when things go sour
And suddenly, no one's around
Floodwaters rising better get yourself on up to higher ground
Beating back the frigid waves of panic as you slowly drown

Got to get out of grim
Got to get out of grim right now
Got to get out of grim
Got to get out of grimtown... before it drags you down

You've memorized every stain on the ceiling
Every crack in the floor
Every conversation sounds the same
And every place feels like you've been there before
Tell them you're going to buy a pack of smokes
Then just walk out the door
Find a place that doesn't rub your mistakes in your face
Won't have to explain yourself any more

Got to get out of grim
Got to get out of grim right now
Got to get out of grim
Got to get out of grimtown... before it drags you down

Sailing past the silent vacant streets that somehow seem
Less... empty now... than when they're full of people
And if you had wings right now, the morning mist would lift you up
Into the amber and the crimson of a sky that's all horizon and you're

Going to get out of grim
Going to get out of grim right now
Going to get out of grim
Going to get out of grimtown
Going to get out of grim
Going to get out of grim right now
Going to get out of grim
Going to get out of grimtown... before it drags you down

Monkey Biscuit

(Words and music copyright 2003 by Dean Bonzani)

I'm really glad to meetcha
I'm really glad I metcha
You shake hands like an octopus
You smile like a placenta
There's a smell in the room and it's making me quiver
Like a jelly on a shingle
Like amoebas in my liver
Is it me, or did it get dark in here
There's a greasy little button on my primitive fear
There's a twitchy little finger that's just aching to push it
And it twitches and it twitches and it twitches

No matter how you bend it
No difference if you twist it
You're still at the mercy of your monkey biscuit
No matter how you bend it
No matter how you bake it
You're still going to take it from your monkey biscuit

I'm sweating like a zebra in my PVC trousers
You're talking like a fever and it lingers for hours
Jim is in the bushes where he's making a distraction
Marlon's in the Rover where he's checking out the action
There's a camera in my face and it's gauging my emotions
An audience of scavengers that hangs on every photon
It's sucking all the gravy from my primitive soul

No matter how you bend it
No difference if you twist it
You're still at the mercy of your monkey biscuit
No matter how you bend it
No matter how you bake it
You're still going to take it from your monkey biscuit

Got to take this all somewhere
Like I'm not dick deep in monkey hair
Try to think like I'm divine
Find some better uses for my time
Chirping like a lucky cricket
Humming in my monkey biscuit
Hung like jewels in my mind
Phosphorescent monkey shines
And it's sucking and it's sucking and it's sucking

Pint Sized Riot

(Words and music copyright 2002 by Dean Bonzani)

This is not a circus act
We may be little but we'll kick your ass
Mayhem's our product and you're going to buy it
We're starting a pint sized riot!

This bozo bus is all over the road
Our fuses are short, we're gonna explode
We're a force of nature and you can't deny it
We're starting a pint sized riot!

Pack up the clown car, it's time to ROCK!
We're small and nasty and acting up
The milk of loving kindness isn't in our diet
We're starting a pint sized riot!

Look at us wrong and we'll bite your shins
We'd pop you in the puss if we could reach your chin
Don't you laugh before you get to try it
We're starting a pint sized riot!

Holiday

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani, copyright 1992)

Can't wait for a holiday
Carve a cave in this steel routine
Reroute all streets, make a road of my own
Can't wait to lay down by the tracks
Draw some blood, dig the stones from my back
Feel the heat of your breath like a flame
Like a flame

Don't wear a white dress on our holiday
Just wear your hunger on your scarlet sleeve
Believe your need
And offer your mouth up to me
No excuses
We are natural
We are animal
We are tantric
We are the flame

All my best parts are on holiday
A skeleton crew has been left for appearance
I'm gone like a cat through a window
Gone in a moment
Drawn by a beacon
Drunk like a gypsy moth courting the candlelight
Slain by its touch
You are beautiful
Like a hillside falling into the sea

Thinning

(Words & music copyright 1995 by Dean Bonzani)

Why are you always in such a hurry
Always worried, always late
You like to think you've got it worked out
I've got it covered is what you'll say
You like to offer up your opinions
And softly bludgeon everything I say

When will you see that the crowd's thinned out
And you're the only one
Who knows what the hell you're talking about
And I'm the only one who cares

Heard you've been keeping your nose to the grindstone
Or maybe it's a mirror with an empty pen
Why don't we go and have a drink
So we can fight about the way that it used to be
You say you love me
All I want to know is... when
Go on croak from your ragged throat
How you'll meet that man in the overcoat
So you can numb yourself to what you ought to feel
What ever happened to that gentle soul I used to know
You got swallowed by a hole
That opened in the street

Why won't you come home and sleep with me
Let me be your anchor 'til the storm begins to slake
I could hold you near, stop your shaking
Dry your tears
Believe me, I'll do anything it takes

When will you see that the crowd's thinned out
And you're the only one
Oh, you're the only one
You're the only one
Oh, you're the only one
You're the only one
You're the only one
You're the only one...

Spider Box

(Copyright 2011 by Dean Bonzani/ Flup Tunes)

What's inside of that Spider Box that you left next to my bed
Is it full of nameless horrors like the ones inside my head
Lacquered as red as your flattering lips
Tell me, what's inside that box
Spiders for hinges
And spiders for feet
And eight legs wrapped 'round the locks

Is it full of pointing fingers
And thousands of squinting eyes
Mad hornets of accusation
Is it crawling with ravenous flies
Is it full of regrets from a dubious past
Is it filled with the ghost of a chance
What sight would greet me if I lifted the lid
Baby birds being eaten by ants

Tell me
What's inside of that Spider Box that you left next to my bed
Is it full of creeping terrors like the ones inside my head
Lacquered as red as your flattering lips
Tell me, what's inside that box
Spiders for hinges
And spiders for feet
And eight legs wrapped 'round the locks

Is it brimming with promises broken
Is it bulging with poisonous thoughts
Are they writhing like venomous serpents
In the moist warm confines of the box
Is it stuffed with the ghost of our poor murdered love
Are maggots devouring its skin
Is it me that I'd see if I lifted the lid
Oh, my dear thing, is THAT what you did

Tell me
What's inside of that Spider Box that you left next to my bed
Is it filled to the rim with unspeakable dreams like the ones inside my head
Lacquered as red as your flattering lips
Tell me, what's inside that box
Spiders for hinges
And spiders for feet
And eight legs wrapped 'round the locks

Tortured Bozos

(Copyright 1981 Dean Bonzani/Flup Tunes)

Tortured bozos oozing ozone into the living room rug
Bringing hope to a dying atmosphere
Don't know where they came from
But I'm glad they're here

Rusted seahorse swimming in my favorite swill
Making faces at my silly Spanish maid
Don't be alarmed, miss
I'm just here to read the meter today

That's the way the clip clop sounds
Spinning through my hemispheres
The charge goes round and round
Echoing the wailings of the shag-bound tortured clowns
They want to swing, but there are no trees to be found

When I was little, I knew a place where no birds sang
'Twas quite peculiar talking with the chilling winds
They told me why I was in orbit 'round a yellow star
And what made me different from all of my friends
And why the fun never seems to end

And they said, in a while you get used to it
The whispered hush of morning
When you know that you are sleeping
Creeping like a shadow through the windows in the sky
No one says goodbye 'cause they never know you
No one says goodbye 'cause they never know you've
No one says goodbye 'cause they never know you've died
How can you even tell of what words cannot describe
How can the caterpillar understand the butterfly

Voices In The Air

(Words & music ©1996 by Dean Bonzani)

Been wracking my brain- working overtime
Scratching at an itch- wish I could find it
What are you laughing at?
I'm in trouble here
There's a conspiracy and I'm in the middle of it

Voices in the air behind my left ear
Calling my name- seems to come from everywhere
What do they say? I wish I could tell you

Don't want to go out- I don't know how to act
Where do I stand? I can't get comfortable
Where are my hands? They're flapping like a halibut
Who is that man with the military haircut?

Voices in the air behind my left ear
Tap me on the shoulder, then they disappear
Come for me at night, when you think I'm here

Wrap me up- I'm getting colder
Breath in my mouth- I'm making contact
Don't let them take me- I like it here
What did you say? You sound so far away

Where are we now? Come a little closer
Please wrap me up- I'm getting so cold
Where is my mouth? Am I a snake again?
Breathing me out, you pull me in again

Sometimes you get lost in the corners of your mind
You find yourself written there between the lines
Tender edge
The fraying seam that holds your dreams together
Weathered like a widow's watch
Rooted to the spot
You feel the tide roll out forever

Let Me Be Your Girlfriend

(Words and Music by Dean Bonzani, copyright 2003)

Let me be your girlfriend
We could stay up all night long
You could tell me all those dirty little secrets
That you'd never dare to tell anyone

Let me be your girlfriend
I could be your Power Puff
Bend some gender
Let's pretend I'm as tender as your knuckle dragging boyfriends were rough

You've been trying to fit a square peg in a round hole
Maybe it's time you considered a different approach

Let me be your girlfriend
I could be your confidante
You could tell me nasty little stories
While you're pulling your pajamas on

Let me be your girlfriend
We could have a slumber night
I could slather you with moisturizing lotion
Then we'd have a vicious pillow fight

You've been trying to fit a square peg in a round hole
Maybe it's time you considered a different approach

Let me be your girlfriend
I will be your bestest friend
I will be your bestest bosom buddy
I'll stick with you 'til the very end

Let me be your girlfriend
We could share everything we've got
We could dress up in kimonos
Grab some sushi, baby
That would make it really hot

You've been trying to fit a square peg in a round hole
Maybe it's time you considered a different approach
How can I convince you— you've been wasting what you feel
You need sympathy— a girlfriend's exactly what you need
A girlfriend just like me
A girlfriend like me

Let me be your girlfriend
I'll be the one you never leave behind
We could take a bubble bath together
Then watch Oprah reruns 'til we go blind

Tomb

(Words & music ©1999 by Dean Bonzani)

Rail at Nature's sense of justice
Just its way of doing business
Damn this frame for having sickness
Frailty and mortal weakness

Beyond these walls, there's youthful vigor
Straining toward a hopeful vision
Caught between the plow and trigger
Spread beneath a baleful reaper

Baby, take it easy
Cling to mother's bosom
You could be a grease spot
On some forgotten highway

Guarantee your safety
With thirty million heroes
Someday that could be you
Staring out a window

Treasure all your golden days
The sunlight on your tender brow
Power in your fingertips
And nestled in between your hips

Never let the tissue scar
It forms a callous on your soul
It can turn your flesh to stone
Desert where a river flowed

Baby, take it easy
Cling to mother's bosom
You could be a grease spot
On some forgotten highway

Guarantee your safety
With thirty million heroes
Someday that could be you
Staring out a window

Let your thoughts be supple things
Woven through with pretty dreams
Pass the cup of suffering
Pass the cup of suffering
Gather up your precious things
Pass the cup of suffering

Twin

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 1995)

It's the way you cringe when I say you're beautiful
It's the way you crawl into yourself
Strikes me in a way I find familiar
Reminds me of somebody else

Don't we all want some words of encouragement
When our own courage begins to ebb
Can't we all use a dropper full of nourishment
For our thirsty souls— wouldn't hurt now and then

Try to drop a line into your solitude
But my attention makes it worse
My curiosity's a burden to me now
And my persistence is a curse

Don't we all want someone to ask us what we need
What's the matter— was it something that came out of me
When you're curled up in a ball and trembling like a leaf
Are you picturing the life that you would rather lead

Can I get you another magazine
Or build you a cabin in the trees
Would it help if I was happy
Would it help if I was happy

Tensed up, clenched, and wild-eyed
Like an animal that has chewed off its own leg
With no escape, I'll bet you'd chew through anything
To break free, and finally get away

Don't we all want someone to ask us what we need
What's the matter— was it something that came out of me
When you're curled up in a ball and trembling like a leaf
Are you picturing the life that you would rather lead

Well, I can't suspend your disbelief
But I can build you a cabin in the trees
Would it help if I was happy
Would it help if I was happy
Would it help if I apologized
For the times I've failed and the times I've tried
Would it help if I was happy

The Price

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 2011)

Siddhartha said that when you hold on to anger
It's like a glowing ember held tight in your fist
If you don't let go, you're the one it will burn
Before it is thrown, you're the one it will burn

You're the one it will burn, if you don't let go
You're the one it will burn, before it is thrown
You're the one it will burn
You're the one it will burn
You're the one it will burn
You're the one it will burn

And you're still looking for a better way
To skillfully wield your resentment and hate
That's your greasy paw on the bone
Your rigid claw clutching the stone

And when it is thrown, that'll be your skull
When the payload comes down, that'll be your home
That'll be your home
That'll be your home
That'll be your home
That'll be your home

And what is the price when you've taken that life?
That child in the field? The husband and wife?
The sons and the daughters, the sisters and brothers?
The fathers and mothers that you have branded the Other?
Will a thousand dollars do? Will five thousand dollars do?
How many zeros on a check would you want your mom to get if it was you?
And it will be you
It will be you
In a hallway at night. In a park with your friends
On a beautiful day. Without any warning
As you're raising a toast. As you're holding her hand
And she looks to the sky
It will be you. It will be you
It will be you. It will be you
It will be US. It will be US
It will be US. It will be US
IT WILL BE US. IT WILL BE US.

Sparrow

(Words & music ©1996 by Dean Bonzani)

Sparrow, sparrow— I took your tiny life
Picked from the rooftops
Light fading from your eyes

You were just a substitute
I put my question to your throat
Mute, you couldn't answer
But now, I hear you singing

What was I thinking
Drinking down my birthright like I did?
The son unblinking
Old man in the body of a kid

You were just a target to me
I couldn't see for my blind rage
Cold and true and steady
I flicked your little flame away

She Lumbers

(Words & music ©1999 Dean Bonzani)

She lumbers
Each step like a falling tree
She waddles
Like an east coast hurricane

Her resilience
Through sun and rain
Brings her nearer to the edge
And back again

Through the red
Then
Through the green
Then red
She makes her cumbersome way down
Then back again

Scarecrow Supergirl

(Words & music ©1999 Dean Bonzani)

Where do you get the confidence
To carry on with such innocence
Penetrating with your second sight
Reading minds with your seventh sense

Breaking hearts with your damsel scam
I'd like to buy a ticket, ma'am
To see you in a bowling shirt
With its pajama monogram

Scarecrow supergirl, scarecrow supergirl
You butter my toast, you butter my toast
Scarecrow supergirl, scarecrow supergirl
I think you're the most, I think you're the most

My Yankee eccentricity
Is wholly born of ingenuity
Like you, I'm just another gutter snipe
Who left their wit to perpetuity

Scarecrow supergirl, scarecrow supergirl
You butter my toast, you butter my toast
Scarecrow supergirl, scarecrow supergirl
I think you're the most, I think you're the most

Never been, never gone, but I'd like to go to Dover with you
Throw some Cheetos™ to the gulls or just admire the view
Touch the rim of the ocean where it licks at the sky
Never told you, but you've got Boston Terrier eyes...

I hope you never get those purple veins
That run all up and down your legs
And I hope you never run out of things to say
In your own peculiar way

Don't ever dream of selling out
Even when you're cold and dead
To me, there's never been a doubt
That yours is a most remarkable head

Scarecrow supergirl, scarecrow supergirl
You butter my toast, you butter my toast
Scarecrow supergirl, scarecrow supergirl
I think you're the most, I think you're the most
I think you're the most

Plain White Square

(Words and Music ©1992 by Dean Bonzani)

Life in the city's too exciting
I wish that it could be a bore
Just when I think I'm going crazy
My plain white square walks through the door

You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you my plain white square
You weren't there, now you're there
Love you my plain white square
You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you, love you my plain white square
You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you my plain white square

How I wish you'd be my panda
Oh, won't you be my honey bear
I want to read you your Mirandas
I love you just because you're there

You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you, love you my plain white square
You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you my plain white square
Aaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah plain white square
Aaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah plain white square
Aaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah plain white square
Aaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah plaine white square

I love the way you make me stupid
I love the way you make me numb
I want to dress you up like Cupid
I love it when you act so dumb...

You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you my plain white square
You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you, love you my plain white square
You weren't there, now you're there
Love you my plain white square
You weren't there, now you're there
Love you, love you my plain white square

Pencil Thin Patch

(Words & music ©1999 Dean Bonzani)

My god, woman— what'd you do to your snatch?
Whittled it down to a pencil thin patch
Hey, now, baby— why'dja ruin your cat?
Shaving it up into a pencil thin patch

A muff is tough like a healthy hedge
A place to rest my chin like a window ledge
Big fluffy muffin like a powder puff
Love to stuff my loveloaf in your fuzzy oven (how I dig on your furry lovin')

Those teeny bikinis, why they make a woman mean
Have to wax their patch up with some mustache cream
Got to smooth their grooves before they hit the beach
So the floss won't get lost up between their cheeks

C'mon, baby— I like a seventies cat
But you've given in to fashion with a pencil thin patch
A natural hamster, honey— that's where it's at
But you had to clear the forest for a pencil thin patch
There's danger and myst'ry to an overgrown thatch
And no imagination 'neath a pencil thin patch

Snappin' and flappin' and lookin' kinda angry
I'd look angry too, if I lost all of my greenery
Carved to a nub, stubby low-cut rubble— that's the trouble
With a stubble muff, you can't hide in the scenery

Just a fountain of fur with a staircase to heaven
Well, that mountain could pur like a 707
If you'd put away that razor and live a life of danger
Hairy as Mary when she shacked up in the manger

Just a fountain of fur with a staircase to heaven
Well, that mountain could pur like a 707
If you'd put away that razor and live a life of power
Just let your hair down like Rapunzel in her tower

Orphan

(Words & music ©1997 by Dean Bonzani)

Buy the view— can't see it now
Where's that pretty little prairie gem
Turned dirty little railroad town?

Another turn of a calendar's page
Another morning in another age

Said goodbye to a lot of patient friends
Sifted splinters in war torn moonlit glens
To this moment I don't understand
Another orphan in a foreign land

Spread around like a schoolyard myth
Handed heaven— now we don't know
What to do with it

Fill the margins of the textbook page
Write the ending to another age

Said goodbye to a lot of patient friends
Sifted splinters in wartorn moonlit glens
Try and try, but I don't understand
Another orphan in a foreign land

My Place

(Words & music ©1984 Dean Bonzani)

Let's go back to my place
Let's go back to my place
The smoke in the room
Is making everything turn
And the light's too bright on your face

Let's go back to my place
Let's go back to my lair
The dialogues humming around me
Are numbing me
Everyone's reading from cards
If you look hard
They sometimes skip lines
Then adlib just in time
Be polite
Don't offend
Just pretend that you didn't notice

Let's go back to my place
There'll be no distractions
We are two explorers
We have a connection
We don't need approval
Attract undue attention
All their expectations will lead to disappointment

Let's go back to my place
Let's destroy convention
No one will stare
We both know that we care
And I think I adore you

Let's go back to my place
Have a conversation
We can discuss what's in store for us
Do something about this
Situation
This inspiration

Mayhem and Treason

(Words & music ©1999 by Dean Bonzani)

I came when you whistled
I stayed for the rains
Drank dew from a thistle
Had visions again

Of a place without reason
That scatters the light
Where mayhem and treason
Turn day into night

You bore me from riverblood
Dripping with sleep
Your luminous fingers
Pulled me from the deep

Now high on an island
Beneath a pale sun
I'm closing a book
That I've barely begun

I came when you whistled
I waited to hear
Just why you had called me
And why was I here

This place is a catacomb
Scoured and wan
A shimmer in midday light
I don't belong

To a crossroads
Where travellers lighten their loads
By leaving their dreams
By the side of the road

My bones are a temple
Where no one may dwell
A gateway whose threshold
Spans Heaven and Hell

My flesh feeds the ravens
My eyes for a meal
My hands clasp a torment
That no one must feel

A spade for the wicked
A rose for the saint
A riot of fireflies
Flickers away

Hollows

(Words & music ©1998 Dean Bonzani)

Wish I could tell you all of my secrets
You could help me lay my demons to rest
Claw my skin off
Where to begin to talk
Follow my blood out to the end

Hollowed out and full of canyons
Our stories wander like restless hungry rivers
Swallowed up in whorls of our momentum
Like a desert wind we're driven

If you'd hesitate...
If you dove right in...
When you contemplate with tenderness
And mercy
That's precisely when...
Don't ask me why

Don't ask me why
Don't ask me how I could do it
Don't ask me why
Because you know as well as I

So we wind and seek and follow
We chase each other's shadows
Meet in sunlight in the shallows
Where we begin to fill the hollows

Carved in our arms...

Carved in our arms
A place of quiet reckoning
Filled with ghosts
Of all our torn out murmurings
Flown to rags
A prayer to all our trespassings
They dart and catch
And tangle in our memories...

Fuzzy Bunny Slippers

(Words & music ©1996 by Dean Bonzani)

Please act your age- you're making such a spectacle
Tugging at your stocking tops
Fogging up my spectacles
Cradle to grave- you strike me as a cannibal
Your hunger is insatiable
Your influence is terrible

Can't fool me with your fuzzy bunny slippers

Put that thing down- I can't take you anywhere
You're pulling a crowd
Wondering at your underwear
Mugging like a fishwife
Cooing like a babydoll
Pouting like a precious child
Seething like a demon bride

Slide your toes inside those fuzzy bunny slippers

Must be those lashes curling like a butterfly's fingers
Can't be those thighs that are tripping my trigger

What's the allure of your infantile behavior?
Sweet little babycakes- forbidden flavour
Linger on my lips like a stolen kiss
Pacify your urges with my fingertips

Trailing from your hips to your fuzzy bunny slippers

Must be those lashes curling like a butterfly's fingers
Can't be those thighs that are tripping my trigger

Maybe it's your tattoos
Maybe it's your saddleshoes
Come at me like voodoo
Funicello hairdo
Maybe it's your lipgloss
Or that debutante head toss
Scorpion or applesauce?
Spiderweb or candyfloss?

Maybe it's the cut of your fuzzy bunny slippers
Maybe it's the jib of your fuzzy bunny slippers

Must be those lashes curling like a butterfly's fingers
Can't be those thighs that are tripping my trigger

Favorite

(Words by Dean Bonzani 2011)

You're my favorite note on a stringless guitar
You're my favorite walk when I'm not going too far
You're my favorite companion when you're not around
You're my favorite meal when I can't keep one down

You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite

You're my favorite tune that I cannot keep
You're my favorite dream when I cannot sleep
You're my favorite color when the lights go out
You're my favorite quiet
You're my favorite loud

You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite

You're my favorite book that I've never read
You're my favorite voice I'm hearing in my head
Quoting famous quotations no one ever said
By my favorite friends that I've never met

You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite
You're my favorite You're my favorite

When your ship's run aground, do the best that you can
When you can't make a sound, say whatever you can
When your up's turning down, do the best that you can
When your best's not enough, do the best that you can

Far Palm

(Words & music ©1995 by Dean Bonzani)

When I feel that yours is just a pantomime
Climbing up a stair that leads nowhere
That's when I can doubt that you're a friend of mine
That's when I try hard not to care

I've been shut up with my books and abstract thoughts
Building castles out of air
And while I'm busy playing astronaut
You're imploding from despair

Leaving pieces everywhere

I told you that I'd found the key to happiness
All that you could do was scoff
Drowning in a pool of your own bitterness
Wondering why you couldn't get off

Try and try to fix yourself just one more time
Before the blackness takes your mind
I think you'd rather lay down and lose the fight
Let the thing take you from behind

Slipped from the bonds of time

I could learn- learn not to try
Like you, just give up and die
But you know that I'm not that type
And you know- you know that I'm right

Oh, you wanderer- where have you gone?
End your suffering- body bloating in the sun
Left your books behind- library dark and still
Haiku of misery and your collapsing will

Webs on the windowsill

Armchair philosopher, what have you done?
Answered your wondering with a loaded gun
Left these questions bare, laying in a tangled mess
Where is the mystery that used to be a friend?

I missed the point again

I could learn- learn not to try
Like you, just give up and die
But you know that I'm not that type
And you know- you know that I'm right

Edison Torpedo

(words & music ©1996 by Dean Bonzani)

I am a probe— the Edison Torpedo
I'm a robot man— thank you, Edison
You've reinvented me— a torpedo, Edison
Venting plasma streams— into the breach, dear friends

Prepare to uncloak— see things the way they are
Seize the controls— eyes on the Polar Star
Silence the mind— a radio frequency
Serpent unwinds— arising— entelechy

Hold tight
I am releasing my payload
All that will ever be

I am an artifact— a future technology
State of the art— just what I'm meant to be
Look in and learn— I am a library
Wheels within wheels— behold! Infinity

I am precision— master of entropy
I am a code— all things contained in me
I am a joke— laughing, I came to be
Watch me unfold— a wave on an endless sea

Don't Cry, Al

(words & music ©1998 by Dean Bonzani)

Don't cry, Al
You can never tell
When the wiles of Uncertainty
Will tip your hand
All is well
Yeah, all is really well
You just need to get naked in some daisies
When your thoughts begin to swell

Grab your coat and hat
Box up Schrödinger's cat
Time to run down to the corner
For some tasty, frozen fruit-flavoured fat

All that dusty chalk
And all that brainy talk
Makes you want to walk
Toward strawberry ice cream

What'd you tell your mom?
Those were your equations in the bomb
I'll bet she was pissed off at you
For more than a week

Time doesn't matter
And these matters take time
Time to matter
Oh, it's time to take some time
When you've had your ration
Of reason and equations
It's good to soothe your passions
With frosty pink libations

Sometimes all you want
Sometimes all you want
Sometimes all you want
Is strawberry ice cream
What'd you tell your mom?
Those were your equations in the bomb
I'll bet she was pissed off at you
For more than a week

Don't cry, Al
Don't cry, Al
The weight of your shoulders
Is on the world

Sometimes it's all you want
Sometimes it's all you want
Sometimes it's all you want
Sometimes

Destroying Angel

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 2011)

Imagine my surprise at finding you
So pristine, not a suitor in sight
So achingly pure, so ivory white
Just a little taste, oh, sheer delight

Can't help myself, a connoisseur
Can't resist your coy allure
Just a little bite simply won't do
I'll help myself to all of you
To all of you
To all of you
All of you

Like an apple on a low hanging branch
Like a pie cooling on a ledge
Like a trinket within easy reach
How can something so sweet be the death of me?
Something so sweet
Something so sweet
Something so sweet

The trouble with you goes double for me
Eight lives lost to curiosity
Caution gets tossed to calamity's winds
A fatal feast, a deadly delicacy

Preparing a plate for a dinner of fools
Poke a finger of fate in the eye of the rules
At the hem of your skirt, my trembling lips
You meet my mouth with apocalypse
Apocalypse
With apocalypse
Apocalypse

Like an apple on a low hanging branch
Like a pie cooling on a ledge
Like a trinket within easy reach
How can something so sweet be the death of me?
Something so sweet
Something so sweet
Something so sweet

Dandelion

(Words and music by Dean Bonzani. Copyright 2003)

Drag you along like a fucking mule
You need a good talking to
What do you say, let's look under the hood
Nothing's working like it should

A glaze has settled in your eyes
My dainty little dandelion
How can we unhypnotize
My dainty little dandelion

Take you to the water, but you will not drink
You need a good talking to
It's so much later than you think
If thinking's what you ever do

A glaze has settled in your eyes
My dainty little dandelion
You've eaten from a tree of lies
My deadly little dragonfly

Lord, what a mess— this'll take some work
I guarantee that it's gonna hurt
How in the world did that get into your head?
This was no accident

A glaze has settled in your eyes
My dainty little dandelion
You've eaten from a tree of lies
My funky little Frankenstein

Beacon

(words & music ©1999 by Dean Bonzani)

Words come easy, but what're they trying to do to me?
Pester, howl, and rob me of my dignity
Drop me down like a Catholic at the whip of sin
Clouded by their beauty 'til I don't know where to begin

Colored flashes— birds dissolve into infinity
Silvered helix— but what's it trying to say to me?
Chinatown corner, business as usual
Reaching down from above, sudden, wonderful

Casting round for the beacon
Trace it back to its source
So obvious, elusive
Overpowering in its force

An explosion in a teacup— an infusion from the storm
Splash me up and out and out of it
Leave me flushed and still and warm
Reaching out, reaching through until it seizes me
Tear through all the walls impeding me

Pinned, immobile— held in place for an eternity
Squeezed until the juice runs from my immortality
Dialed into the flitting of it's wings
Spun around into the sound of its whisperings

Casting round for the beacon
Trace it back to its source
So obvious, elusive
Overpowering in its force

Airstream Trailer

(words & music ©1991 Dean Bonzani)

When the wind begins to chill you
And it isn't even blowing
Surely the wind knows what it's doing
Where are you going?
Aren't you glistening
What's that that you've got?
Why aren't you listening?

In the three a.m. when the desert's waking
Will you be taking your leave of the room?
Do you know the old trail by the cottonwoods
Leading to cliffs of vermillion and
Lavender hue?

Will you make them new, these hands of mine?
Will you take them into your own?

As those silver beauties glide into the desert heat
Filled to capacity
Lit up like a Christmas tree
You just can't seem to shake off the memory
Of two Airstream trailers burning like a garbage heap
And as you pass the carnage
You chance to see
All of those faces burn into your memory

Will you make them new, these hands of mine?
Will you take them into your own?