Everyone in the world wants to sound like a poet
I think
I just want to sound like everyone else – in the world
Telling jokes – has always been trying
For me
Because I laugh, preemptively, to prepare for how the laughter might sound
Alone, I practice, I brace myself for the rare occurrence
That I
Could be witty enough to pull laughter from anyone
Anyone in the world I wanted
To be
Ready for anyone in the world to laugh at me
I must whet the throats of friends
Blurting
Out a demonstration of how they should react to me
My laughter is sweet and sour lemonade, poured down the wrong pipe
We all choke
And I can’t pronounce the punchline
Gabriel Lukas Quinn (he/him) is a gay writer and English student from Portland, Oregon. Quinn authors short speculative fictions, psychological thrills, and poetry demystifying mental health. If you can’t find Quinn hiding in the sci-fi section at the library, he’s probably at the gym or fighting off a Beholder (in D&D, hopefully). Quinn has been featured in publications such as A Thin Slice of Anxiety, Bindweed Magazine, Door is a Jar Literary Journal, Pathos Literary Magazine, Perceptions Literary Magazine, and The Sucarnochee Review.