I’m anxious about my two loose front teeth.
Every time I lick them, they get looser and looser.


I keep checking with my tongue if they’re still loose and each time I do, I make them looser and looser.


I close my mouth tight to stop.
But the clenching is a catalyst for two soft, dull snap snaps and the teeth are out,
lying on my tongue

and so I swallow them.


All that night, I’m sick,
imagining the two teeth chomping and chewing up my insides.

The tooth fairy comes anyway.