Sunday, June 7, 2020

Sunday Evening with Alyssa Trivett



Tonight Alyssa Trivett returns with her sharp, direct poems.  The first poem below is an excellent example.


You

And as they relayed to you,
with me in the foreground
as my jaw dropped,
are you in any pain?
You couldn't hear,
you asked my mother
to repeat,
as she did,
you screamed No...
right before
your brain shriveled
and they shoved you, somehow,
in a stretcher
like a half-melted dart
on the bullseye
in the back of a bar.
You mouthed that
you loved us
and I never saw you so lively
as much as that time.
And I still smile,
'cause I know
you know you lived it well.




Filming



I had a dream on
the way here
that the camera at the top
of this stilt contraption
came crashing down
as a cartoon anvil would.
I count my sips from
my cuppa coffee
and rig my zoom in zoom out
controller for a sport
I've only filmed once.
EZ chair attached to me,
my form of canvas
this evening.
I left my words at home,
even if they're
begging for me,
jumping on the keyboard
until that ungodly hour
arises of me pie-slapping
words into a soulless machine.
Isn't that how it always is?
As it should be.



11:42PM, Saturday the 13th


He paid for the drink but I
never let him live it down.
Smoky eyes.
It's all just drink rings
on napkins
and a conversation
floating through
these tables
like lost souls
at a pool hall after hours,
slam-dancing into things.
The evening was unwritten,
one bar after the next,
and he clutched my pinky
as always.


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Let's play some hectic late night jazz for this last poem.  Here is Josh Evans' "Vibe Up" at Smalls on 4/16/19:

I don't know if the couple in the last poem were out at 3 am, but the musicians in the video below were.  The second trumpet player was Roy Hargrove who would die just three months after this video was recorded.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUnbfXySq54

The first trumpet player was Giveton Gelin who performed with his quintet in the video below:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKTz1iUkcW0

I'll finish with a video of Roy Hargrove:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvHcHQ9-jdo 

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