To Hold

mike swanberg

A flare pulled me out of bed last night
then to the window I didn’t know what
It was so I found myself content to stare with
hands turned inward on the cool sill

There was a song playing through cheap speakers
The singers voice was hoarse but moving
And the flare did all it could like a car wreck
To pull my attentions

I know that some places they see them often
they might be familiar enough even to make a wish
so then make one on the sound Of a gun down the street
hold your breath for luck when you ride the bus

In my mind there is a little girl on a burnt out car
Her hair is pulled back and she is smiling with twelve
Years of uncertainty in her eyes that know nothing
Of a cool sill or a night of almost absolute silence

Then it gets harder to fall asleep with my fingers
At war with the frayed edge of the sheet with my
Eyes uncomfortably closed like a hug around this girl
And there are a thousand flares going off all around me
Saying get up get up look outside