Do Words Get Stage Fright?

sometimes
I think there's too much pressure
put on the words to come out right
words shouldn't be perfect
they are a tool
they are as flawed as the person who says them
and yet maybe that's why we rehearse speeches
in the dead of night in front of mirrors
pretending we have something important to say
when really we're just reciting pointless information
how we'll say hello
how we'll say goodbye
how we'll pretend not to have the flaws we do
because if we can make our words perfect then maybe
just maybe by extension
we are too
and I wonder
I wonder this a lot
when I trip over the words I rehearsed
in the bathroom mirror before I left my house
I wonder
do words get stage fright