DEAD TEETH

I swallowed pieces of my teeth yesterday, and it reminded me why I lose my appetite for days on end.

I swallowed pieces of my soul when those punches to my stomach caused a hurricane that wiped out the streets.

I swallowed white drugs on a black day when pain was coming down like heavy rain, hailing human sized ice, crashing cars and stealing lives.

I swallowed white lightning when the storm wouldn't pass, when the ocean was in a fury fit of rage disguised as a change of skin.

I swallowed everything I feared just to listen to the tiny talks, chattered teeth gnawing on their own tongues.

I swallowed my stomach so I could forget what it means to crave.

I swallowed myself in a haze of self metamorphism.

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Walls crumble like cake frosting melting on a summer day park bench confetti called birthday surprise murdered accident crying in the back of a antique store.

The books are empty dusty longing for fingertip pressure passion care and grace filtered absence of serenity marking misshaped youths, but a book is all she's got.

Bedrooms stained in a scabby bitten anger, remorse, wasted summer cheated words of envious lust smoking tobacco from a filter made for royals.

Bottles piled to the ceiling counting sheep in human skin with bullhead eyes vermillion dust covering a golden field dragging bodies to the tops of hills where thunder waits to strike and leave no marks no scars just stories burned in memories accessible through sleeping visions.

Dipped into your mind I felt the fear, you felt the fear, terrified of me, rolled away, told me to leave, get out of my head get out of my skin.

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I'll listen to the piffle bouncing off your lips.

My maudlin story continues with or without drive.

You were a bolide heading straight for my head but my instincts winnowed out my impending death.

Carnation smiles smacking red meat between the chipped calcium collectors.

Heated wires beneath the surface of our feet, nicked and arched skin evaporated in seconds.

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I swallowed fermented breathes of recycled poems I couldn't recite.

I swallowed particles of marine animals trapped in shells long washed up in the desert.

I swallowed clouds dipping their limbs into the atmosphere surrounding my body like a bubble.

I swallowed road traps meant to capture food for hungry mountain savages humanizing survival.

If that wasn't enough to convince my body I was giving up on trying to treat it, I swallowed my tongue and never spoke again.

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