October 2015
I love words and dig poetry slams. I've been writing poetry since I was about 5 years old and my mother tells everyone I was born with a pen in my hand. I am a project manager by profession and reside in Utah with my handsome husband and our two outstanding children. You can read more of my work and follow my poetry adventures here: http://trishhopkinson.com/.
Pearl at the Studio Mic
a poem from the perspective of Janis Joplin's microphone
The maniac screams.
Her lips touch my face.
Her palm presses madly
at the back of my neck,
squeezes my collar and jerks
me in neurotic movement.
She tempers. She fusses.
She tells me no one will love me
the way she tries to do;
she tells me it’s alright to cry.
Cry, baby, she coddles;
she rises. She bends her voice
over and my insides vibrato.
She drags her larynx out
beneath the lights.
Come on, baby, her mouth
wraps lyrics in the hiss
of Southern Comfort
and the sweltering prick
of poppies. She pulls me in
and yanks me from my stance,
both at once. She hurls raucous
and rough like swallowing
grind, like wood heel against grit,
against hurt and fret.
Her rumblings burst out.
Her spit stings my metal.
Her eyes and skin wad and jam.
She’s rocking, cradling my coolness
in her hot, wet hands.
Come on, come on, honey,
cry, cry… baby.
-originally published in Utah Sings: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by the Utah State Poetry Society. 2015.
©2015 Trish Hopkinson