Teeth

 

They say that dreams of losing teeth 

are about a power 

lost,

 

as if our half-moon row of folded forms —

leather-hard, enameled glaze —

were snatched 

from us

in the firing. 

 

Isn’t it easy to think? that

if only 

we had gotten the chance 

to set our jaw

just so —

then

we could have controlled

the kiln.

 

Still, 

there is something so 

powerful

in the way a moose molar 

unfolds,

hiding nothing,

its coiled roots exposed,

as if it knew it would be placed

just so

against a fallen spruce.

 

Did it resist the fierce fire

that freed

its light 

from form?

or did it merely fall

 

leaving its half-moon row 

like a talisman,

holding both sky and earth

 

as if 

the only way to hold 

everything

was to be wholly

in it all.