“i smile too much and think all the wrong things are funny. i laugh when i’m nervous, get nervous when i’m lying. i’ve spent whole afternoons laughing through my teeth, it’s true, i’m not fragile. my fracture lines are in all hard to reach places, well aware that the world is a battlefield where we go to paint ourselves red over whatever we decide most worth it.”
—katie wirsing, one of my favorite slam poets and denver native. i’ve loved this poem for too long, too many years.