2nd place winer of the poetry contest: ​“do people still write” -Kelsey Smoot

bad reviews?
all hail the one-star pile-on
the scorched-earth recounting
of the shockingly aloof server
and the undercooked chicken

praise be the keyboard
warrior
undefined by typos
unafraid of being typecast
as a narc
or a karen
though they do share the same
distant ancestor

where can i go for the truth?
no, not the ungodly synthesis
of every page that exists before the paywall
by a machine with no investment
in my vitriol
i mean your truth
god’s truth
‘That vacuum was a piece of shit--
couldn't suck water through a straw
and the company won’t give me
my money back
Buncha damn crooks!’

do people still care
about me?
​about all of us?
about justice?
who will spare us the fate
of the t-shirt
that isn't actually blue
but looks blue in the photo?

who will stand before god
on judgment day
avenged for their every sin
a truth teller, a seer, a shaman
a literary titan in their own right
in the final chapter of humanity?



​Dr. Kelsey L. Smoot (they/he/Kelz) is a Tin House Workshop alum, a Pushcart Prize nominee, a Best of the Net nominee, and a Best New Poets nominee. Proudly, he is also the author of two chapbooks: we was bois together with CLASH! (An Imprint of Mouthfeel Press) and Muse, with Another New Calligraphy. Thrillingly, Kelz’s debut full-length collection of poems, SOULMATE AS A VERB arrives in early 2026 with DOPAMINE/Semiotext(e).