When I was young there was a gap between my front teeth so big that I could fit a straw through it
I squeezed my tiny pink tongue through the hole constantly
Most likely pushing them further apart
Not helped by falling face first on my icy driveway
My grandma had given me a cookie from the freezer
and I winced before I bit in and realized that it was soft
My teeth throb when I eat ice cream
and I've had two major cavities
I learned to dislike the tiny black slit in my mouth
They're in braces now
Buckling under the pull of the wire, my gap closed
Yet braces still make my teeth sore

I feel like an incomplete puzzle,
Clumsy waltzing in a field of wood chippers.
I don't just fall to pieces, I shred.
I tear and bleed, most importantly I hurt.

****. I hurt.

I've never been full,
I've never seen the bigger picture.
Always out of reach, lacking perspective.

As my own world is ripped apart,
I further delve into gnashing teeth of hell.

But it's not just mine, this shared damnation,
Leaves us all to rot.

I've no clever line to sum it all up,
I've lost the words which sing of hope.

wilting bouquets
                               at a gravestone

we are keen to point out the
spinach
               in your teeth
flashing our own in mockey

there are graveyards in our closets
unmarked tombstones rattling
under each breath

& still we find humor in
your lack
grow vines of resentment at
your affluence

we were once all planted
in the same soil

not our fault yours
                                  had shade
not our fault yours
                                  wasn't watered
we shout as we

                                   s     t    o    m    p

on your leaves and pluck petals
                                  off your stems

and yet you
bloom
through the cracks of pavement
your florets blossom
amidst sand

not our problem
we whimper from our manicured lawns

a dog ****** on me today.

dogs pulling at their own chains
not made to restrain but instead
made to constrict the throat
scratching and clawing at their collars
snapping at the passerby who extend a friendly palm
curling into a deep sleep under a meadow’s tree