State Hospital - Frightened Rabbit

The half-backflip conception, state hospital birth

The most threadbare, tall story the country has ever heard

Brought home to breath smoke in the arms of her mother

The blunt kitchen knife who just lays in a submissive position

Beneath a national weight and the slow arc of a fist

Her heart beats like a breezeblock thrown down the stairs

Her blood is thicker than concrete forced to be brave

She was born into a grave

And in the limp through years of bored schooling

She’s accustomed to hearing that she could never run far

A slipped disc in the spine of community

A bloody curse word in a pedestrian verse

Spirits in graveyards and fingers in car parks

She cries on the high street just to be heard

A screaming anchor for nothing in particular

At the foot of the fuck of it dragging her heels in the dirt

Her heart beats like a breezeblock thrown down the stairs

Her blood is thicker than concrete forced to be brave

She was born into a grave

The cheek of youth flashed red and turned green

Now she lies on the pavement, she is helped to her feet

All thighs, hair and magpie handbags

Saturday’s uniform for the ‘fuck me' parade

Brought home to keep warm in the arms of a plumber

Ruddy and balding who just needs a spine to dig into

A chest for the head and a hand for the holding

Her heart beats like a breezeblock thrown down the stairs

Her blood is thicker than concrete forced to be brave

She was, she was

Her heart beats like a breezeblock thrown down the stairs

Her skin is thicker than concrete forced to be brave

She was, she was

A broken elevator anthem held between floors

But if blood is thicker than concrete

All is not lost

All is not lost

All is not lost

All is not lost

All is not lost