Alyssa Trivett is a wandering soul from the Midwest. When not working two jobs, she listens to music and scrawls lines on the back of gas station receipts. Her work has appeared in VerseWrights, In Between Hangovers, and recently at Otoliths and Five 2 One.
***
Grocery clerk with
faded name badge dangling
and dried blood spot,
panhandling fingers, rotten,
plays pool cue/eight ball,
corner pocket/
with the order divider.
Lines snake through and
lunchtime rush becomes
a Slinky,
people swipe their cards,
grab their bags, and
exit stage left,
off to their next
'You Are Here' icon.
***
2. At the Table
I wanted to throw cards down,
build a popsicle stick house
and let my ten fingers live in it,
and vacuum up the drums.
I sat in the squeaky chair,
let my coffee cup
run off its mouth,
and let those comic bubbles
fly through the air,
unsupervised.