Post Extraction

Juleigh Howard-Hobson

__________

It’s not simply the matter of the tooth 
coming out. There’s the gap, the open gum,
the hole where there used to be a wall of
solid teeth. You’ll never eat food again
the same way, there will always be the blank
space that no longer chews or allows you
to chew there. Food will fall in. Bread will clank
against sides of teeth never exposed to
the hardness of crust. Your tongue will not cease
exploring the lack, over and over, 
while your brain tells it no no pretty please
for gods sake stop touching the hole, but your
tongue will have returned while you are saying
that. Still, the tooth itself is out of pain.

__________

Juleigh Howard-Hobson’s work can be found in Think Journal, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Able Muse, Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea (Great Weather for Media), Under Her Skin (Black Spot Books), and many other venues. She has been nominated for “The Best of the Net”, the Pushcart, the Elgin and the Rhysling Awards. Her latest book is Curses, Black Spells and Hexes (Alien Buddha Press). She tweets: @poetforest and brushes her teeth after every meal. 

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