Know Your Stage

By Jeremiah Blue

It is the final round of the Phoenix Slam Poetry Championship, and the winner will go on to represent the city at the Individual World Poetry Slam. Two of my poems have already gone over well with the judges, so I step to the mic with confidence. I begin reciting a poem I have memorized, and it feels perfect.

But when I look through the lights, some in the audience strain forward, while others whisper to their friends. Finally, someone hollers out, “We can’t hear you!”

I pause, look down at the mic, and notice the switch has been turned off. An entire thirty seconds of my one-minute piece has been read on a mic that wasn’t even powered on.