SRB - Kristin Hersh

Head first into the headboard

I’m shatterproof

But cranial impact

Taps something true

If I could grab your attention

With my styrofoam rattlebox

You’d smile away my transgression

And tap something lost

A spitball to the ribcage

My useless heart hit

We’re slap-happy the livelong day

Neck and neck

If I could grab the man on a street

With my raspy rattaplan

My only personal property

A raspy, whispered plan

A bottle-green sky

Stinging yellow hair

In a tizzy of deviation

Giddy in the glare

If I could grab this whirligig

And keep it in my arms

We’d persevere through what is here

And mourn what is gone

A smoker’s gasp

And a child’s howl

Cut through the air

Drown out all other sound