Amy invades
takes up cocktail hour residence
Soft as shadows she casts silhouettes
tightly cut into shape by her X-acto knife voice
a dollop of dissipation floats in the refrain
She is the hors d’oeuvre served on a Ritz cracker in the local pub
Defiant, her lyrics undulate
sassy sad angry

Amy’s brave wise cracks
Every word snaps
Because her mouth forms the sound before it emerges
Knifes in
Warbles out
Some verses click, they are the essence of castanets spoken
How does she know exactly when to breathe, exactly how to stay just ahead of the beat?

Confident
Vulnerable
In her words “laughed at by the gods”

Teasing her hair up just before the show
lining her eyes in long strokes like a Pharaoh
She is sex honest on stage
Brandishing belly she pours her frail brute strength down inside your head like Alambic Brandy, and you smack your lips
Ah
that burns so smooth, pour me another 

I stretch and relax
The first verse a frisky kitten
jumps into my reverie and tears through it
emerging as a bobcat
carrying in her jaws the broken limp prey
I acquiesce to her genius

Catherine G. Tripp writes for grownups, deconstructing air brushed stories, and finding humor and courage in the unloved corners. She has participated in prestigious writing workshops over the years, won contests in Writer’s Digest and Reedsy and is a featured reader for Mask Monologues, Coffee and Grief and Creative Caffeine. She lives in Hawaii where she is writing a historical novel about Mary Ellen Pleasant, a determined abolitionist entrepreneur.