Your Teeth Will Fall Out

Reminder to live.

your teeth will fall out

if you stop speaking

your hair will never grow

you'll never have your "aha!" moment

and you'll forget to love yourself

you will forget to build your walls too

to protect the little you've grown

with your own two hands.

you'll let thieves into your garden

they'll poison your rivers

you will fallow

but you will not reseed

because you will be too weak to

because you forgot to eat yet again

and your body will grow cold

your brown skin will ashen

your flesh will sag prematurely

your brain will rot

and your bones will develop caverns

you'll become carrion

but only if you let it

only if you do not etch your name into 

all the spaces that you've filled with 

the sound of your voice.