Tonight's Poet Corner: I Dream Of Losing My Teeth
I Dream Of Losing My Teeth
by Belinda Roddie
I dream of losing my teeth -
wiggling them out, yanking them out,
feeling them loosen in my gums as I rip
the ivory from the roots and stick my tongue
deep into the crevasses my actions leave behind.
And then I wake up and run an index finger
against my canines and incisors and relax
when I find all my chompers are still there.
They say you dream about your teeth falling out
when you are afraid of growing older,
but what does it mean
when you twist out the molars yourself,
smiling gaps and spitting cider
in between the holes? Is it that I
initiate my own aging, growing up too fast
and losing my bones to dust? Or am I
accepting the inevitable, dragging my gums
into soup, and preparing to go
prematurely gray?
by Belinda Roddie
I dream of losing my teeth -
wiggling them out, yanking them out,
feeling them loosen in my gums as I rip
the ivory from the roots and stick my tongue
deep into the crevasses my actions leave behind.
And then I wake up and run an index finger
against my canines and incisors and relax
when I find all my chompers are still there.
They say you dream about your teeth falling out
when you are afraid of growing older,
but what does it mean
when you twist out the molars yourself,
smiling gaps and spitting cider
in between the holes? Is it that I
initiate my own aging, growing up too fast
and losing my bones to dust? Or am I
accepting the inevitable, dragging my gums
into soup, and preparing to go
prematurely gray?
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