MENAGERIE ~ autobiography song ©2026 John F Sendelbach
©2026 John F Sendelbach
M-E-N-A-G-E-R-I-E
Menagerie, in steel & stone Salamander, newt, sturgeon, trout in the stone stone stone
Menagerie's the word that got me Top three in the spelling bee,
standing near the top, and I fell down on one knee. Took me fifty years to build the stoned metal menagerie.
Standing near the top, they gave me the word
Menagerie, and something in me stirred
Sat back down but the letters stayed with me
Spent a life building what I couldn't quite see
He knew the word built it instead
Rooms full of animals living in his head
Sand on a beach, a turtle, some rings
The boy was already siting his things
You make the next thing alive in your hand
alive in your hand
Don't get the shape till you turn and you land
turn and you land
And it all rhymes, 'cause I'm the times
Same hand striking the same bell every rhyme
Salamander, newt, sturgeon, trout in the swell
M-E-N-A-G-E-R-I-E, menagerie
The whole wild word that took me 'round
Threw a rock at a girder, it rang like a coin
Some tone in the steel where the memory joins
Banged a nail, planted a shrub in the ground
Won't tell you to build till you've made that sound
Copper then steel then the cutlery came
Forks into fish every scrap knew its name
A heron of tools, a pig from a tank
A whole hidden bestiary I never once thanked
You make the next thing alive in your hand
alive in your hand
Fifty years later you finally understand
finally understand menagerie...
And it all rhymes, 'cause I'm the times
Same hand striking the same bell every rhyme
George in the snow and Totem in the stone
Menagerie, a country all my own
The whole wild word that took me 'round
this is the sturgeon talking now. Living fossil.
Down in the river longer than the language.
Older than the word. Listen. menagerie
Dog Totem sat in the middle of the stone spiral
Twenty years in a cycle I hadn't yet known
I won't call it magic, I'll call it what's true
The pattern was there, I just fell in the blue
the room furnished with your own two hands
the room the map you drew before you had the plans
turn around now look what the making became
a whole place and every creature knows your name
And it all rhymes, 'cause I'm the times
Same hand striking the same bell every rhyme
Salamander, newt, sturgeon, trout heron as well
M-E-N-A-G-E-R-I-E, menagerie
I built the whole word that took me 'round
knew the word built it anyway
top of the bee signing it today
Not a list, not a job, not a thing you can sell
Just the whole wild word, menagerie
So I sign it with a duck, the duck says it best
Bach, Bach, Bach
Menagerie,
Same hand, same bell, I'm the rhyme
George, Totem, in the snow, in the stone
Built it, built it, signing it in time
Menagerie, menagerie
Bach, Bach, Bach