More Poems from Alyssa Trivett

Photograph by Jean Beaufort

 Tonight I'd like to post a few more poems by Midwestern poet Alyssa Trivett.  I know that you've enjoyed the directness and simplicity of her poetry.

Snow Drift

I half-flutter like a bird 

with a broken wing,

caught in a spider web,

sinking in quicksand.

Any move or turn cauterizes the underbelly.

I swoop myself up,

and laugh victoriously,

video-game like.

Almost.

Cortisone Shots in Both Wrists

My hands shocked on the 

steering wheel

like a key to an electric kite

or a roller-skate shooting firework sparks on hotter than

HE-double-hockey-sticks pavement

still waiting for the wheels 

to Flintstone fall off

and knock over some bowling pins

and not be so useless

as my hands carpal-tunnel electrocuted from recent events.

1:36AM

Clocks talk back 

to one another.

My writing

is a cartoon character showing up

amidst normal conversation,

only to pie-slap words

into neighborhood fences.

Trains hopscotch at

off and unwanted hours.

My carpal-tunnel arms

quake, a broken rollercoaster

before the seventy five foot

comma drop begins.

Clocks now sing.

I described it to one of my best friends as a blessing 

and a curse.

Rather 

Would rather be hit 

by ceiling fan blades

by the neighborhood kids or skate on the thinnest ice

with unsharpened old kitchen knives

at the bottom of the skates

or skydive with no shoes on

or register weekly 

for health benefits

for the rest of my life

or smash my mailbox

or volunteer to paint the walls of 

my elementary school gym

by myself on a time limit 

or eat chocolate 

covered ants

for fifteen days

than to ever 

deal with that again.

Bio:

Alyssa Trivett is a wandering soul from the Midwest. When not working two jobs, she chirps down coffee while scrawling lines on the back of gas station receipts. Her work has recently appeared at The Rye Whiskey Review and Beakful.

A while back, I started listening to Dr. Lonnie Smith's tribute album to Beck.  (I'd love to know how he came up with the idea.). Here is his version of "Where It's At":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wib18QjR63o

I have to include "Devil's Haircut":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U59bQhwbl_Q

Dr. Lonnie has also covered Paul Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9wK3ydpDmg

Here is an earlier song by Dr. Lonnie:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lsZb93rY8E

Enjoy!