Alyssa. Derived from the flower alyssum. Greek roots a- “not” and lyssum- “insane”.
Alyssa. A lie. Not insane.
According to German origins, Alyssa means truth. I kid you not, truth. A lie means truth. Which is funny, because I’m a liar. Sometimes I find it hard to say even one true thing.
Alyssa. A lie. Saw. I saw a lie. I saw a lie the day a liar was named truth. Maybe that’s the beauty of it. The lie calling itself truth. But what’s so good about the truth?
Tell me something true, tell me something true, they say. I say back to them I’m not insane and they actually believe me. Tell me something else true, they say. They want something better. So I say you’re pronouncing my name wrong. The truth is, it’s pronounced with “lie” in it. Not Uh-liss-uh, but Uh-LIE-suh. The “lie” is the most important part. This time I actually am telling the truth.
Here is something true: I am not an example of truth or sanity. Maybe it’s because everyone pronounces my name wrong. Maybe if they got it right I’d be able to sleep at night and I could tell the truth. Wait, who am I kidding? I couldn’t tell the truth.
What’s so good about the truth, then? Still trying to figure that one out. Truth would be someone called Ruth. She sounds like your great aunt that smells like mothballs and likes gardening. Ruth is an ugly name. Truth is an ugly word. Alyssa though, Alyssa sounds like Queen Elissa or Alyssa Milano. Backwards it says ass, full of shit. Alyssa, a lie, lice, saw, scandal. Much more exciting than Ruth. And everyone loves a big fat lie.
I really like this--one of my favorite aspects of this piece is the way you play with the "LIE" in your name and keep playing with that idea throughout the piece.
ReplyDeleteAnother great aspect of this is the rhythmical sound of your sentences, such as: "Alyssa. A lie. Saw. I saw a lie. I saw a lie the day a liar was named truth." This really worked for me not only because it made the work run smoothly, but it also struck my ears as a sort of overly-developed version of the "name game."