*often, I’ve relied on PJ Harvey to distract, heal, soothe and stroke my misery into something more malleable, less sticky. I visit this album often but I especially go back to the song, “grow grow grow.” This song is on repeat in my head, especially during the summer months, since the album was released on May 31, 2004.
Where do I lay when knives fill my back?
A slice of my bad day
lives
inside a bird’s nest
perched outside my window,
catches fire in the summer, a
song reminiscent
of childbirth—
a soundstripe hunched,
a freedom and discomfort/
the cold stings my skin,
bees suck the glands, sweetness
fill their legs
secrete in secret
the knives slip out as the morning dew
shrouds,
as I catch my flames,
an embryo of
a local god that crushes
whatever pain still remains
Notes of a Dirty Young Woman 