teeth and epiphanies

Courtney Barnett - Before You Gotta Go

i remember the feeling of curls on a new set of teeth
and adults around me saying they'd smoothen out the more i talked
but i'm not one to converse so i whistled through my teeth to get rid of them
of course, it never worked
the curls persisted

last night, on an auto ride to my apartmen,t i realised i had forgotten the feeling
because the curls were no longer there
my friend realised along with me
and yet i could still recall the sensations of a tooth being pulled out
of its sharp ends on my fingertips and the taste of iron from my bloody gums
and the tongue remembers the gap between the teeth

i guess the feeling of loss never really leaves you
like the experience of loose teeth being pulled, forgotten momentarily

then, to be relived 2 decades later, but without the same pain from the pull,

and the healing that takes place without the knowing

like the gums that smoothed out, like the curls that disappeared

like the teeth that grew with us, not knowing. 

~ ៷