Apparently “her nails were painted”
is The Wrong Answer
when asked to explain yourself to Dr. Professor, PhD
after you, normally top of your class,
So Royally Flunked
your most recent practical.

He looked at me expectantly
but I had no other explanation to offer,
so I looked up from my own nails,
kept short because of the latex gloves,
shrugged, and left.

Because I couldn’t bring myself
to identify the vagus nerve or various lobes of liver when,
So glaringly apparent,
were her nails.
Painted.

She painted her nails red
because she had no plans to die,

proving that even red painted nails
are not enough
to keep us alive.

*

Meggie Kollitz is a 21-year-old from Minnesota working towards English and Pre-Health majors and a Theology minor at the University of Notre Dame. She is in love with my school, although she misses her family and her cat Hattie while away from home. Her favorite things to do, besides just spending time with her amazing loved ones, are running, writing poetry, being on the lake, and ending her weeks playing with the adorable two-year-olds at the childcare center center she volunteers at.