I can’t stop thinking
about how you always hated your teeth
and the way the ones in the front go sinking
towards each other like mountains too steep
to climb. You say it happened in a car
accident, that the force from the crash
is what shoved them together that way but I know you far
too well not to point out that you are the last
person who would admit that you were
born with any sort of flaw at all.
You are the type of person to slur
your words until they fall
from your tongue wearing a disguise,
just to get me to grieve over your demise.