Quote from Jaimi A on May 30, 2025, 2:15 pm

Trigger - a poem 1.29.2024

 

There is a fine violin string, the smallest of strings

It lies parallel to my spine

Deep in the visceral layers behind my belly button

It sits quietly, invisible

No one knows it is there

It fades from even my own memory some days

Until it doesn't

Until it is plucked, ever so gently

By a moment

A sound

A smell

A word

An image

And then, it becomes the largest of bass strings

Pulling taught from top of skull to base of pelvis

A thick rod of steel and nickel

Deep and violent

It vibrates, resonates

Shakes the core

Splitting heart and mind

Jaw vibrating and clenching

Ears exploding

Exuding a pitch of deafened screams

Sorrow

Time

Pain

I have to lay still when it rings

Hold quiet as it shakes my core and heart

Vibrates my soul to the edge of shattering

I clench my eyes tight and wait

Holding myself together

Until the moment passes

And I feel it dull

Retreat

Thin

Back down to the finest of violin strings

Laying parallel to my spine

Deep in the visceral layers behind my belly button

Quiet until it

Isn't