Abby Thatcher

“Sounds to Send into Space”

The sound of my mother laughing
in the kitchen at one in the morning
while my sisters trick her into breaking
the set curfew.

The sound of my brother and I launching
each other down the stairs in laundry
baskets, not fearing the broken bones
that wait at the bottom.

The sound of my father reciting
a joke he heard online, unable to
say the whole thing because he can’t
stop laughing.

The sounds my little sisters make
when they’ve been told to be quiet,
a hum of a question begging the other
to break the silence first.

First contact with the aliens
will be filled with the sounds of
my family, refusing to take life
as seriously as it demands.

(Be sure to include the sounds
of denial I will make when they
ask if this poem is about them.)

Abby Thatcher (she/her) is a midwestern poet with a particular love for rodents and voicing the songs of vermin. @Stabbylane on all platforms (except Tumblr, you’ll never find that one)