My dream teeth
shred against my tongue
like sodden fingernails
I am my father’s daughter
and I have his teeth
secreted inside me
Hard and cold as death
these gumless, vicious ivories
hidden and forgotten
in a drawer that stinks
of spilled perfume
and moth’s wings.
They have followed me
abided with me,
a swallowed secret,
lodged in my gullet
shut tight with fear
for all these years.
And so, like him,
I vomit out barbed words
that gnaw on those I love.
I choke on what I cannot keep down,
and I bite the hand that feeds me.
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