Able Muse Write Prize for Poetry, 2014 ▪ Finalist
For Lack of What Is Found
I am not convinced by the cartoon tooth
that hangs above the dentist’s office door—
those wide glassy eyes, the bowlegged roots,
that gloved hand brandishing the brush, with a small
forced smile of its own like each tooth has teeth,
and those teeth have teeth—all bared for the love
of the sharp-edged tools that scour them clean.
I fell for the warmth of that smile once.
I have no sign except this blinding bulb
above my mattress, pelted by these moths
whose minor deaths cast shadows on my walls.
They sputter as they burn to paper pulp.
They celebrate one filament of light
as if they’d stumbled on the sun at night.
Links:
[1] https://www.ablemuse.com/digital-books-18/v18/digital edition/Complete Digital Version of -/Able Muse, Print Edition (Number 18), Winter 2014