Jamie L. Smith

Jamie L. Smith is the author of the chapbook Mythology Lessons, winner of Tusculum Review's 2020 Nonfiction Prize, selected by judge David Lazar. Her work appears in publications including Southern Humanities Review, Ruminate, Bellevue Literary Review, Pigeon Pages, San Antonio Review, Not-Very-Quiet, Red Noise Collective, and recent anthologies by Indie Blu(e) and Allegory Ridge. She was listed as a Best American Essays Notable in 2021. She is a PhD candidate in English Literature & Creative Writing at University of Utah.

“To the Dead Man Living Inside My Knee” and “What I Thought Was Pollution Was Really God”

A careless dictator, most days
I do not think of you

unless you protest, beating your fists
against the walls of my flesh

when I’ve danced you too hard
or damp February

clenches your teeth
into a knot of hot fury. Please
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