to kiss a boy with crooked teeth 

when i was in the 
6th grade 
i learned to lip-smile--
to keep the tombstones
inside my head--
my blue retainer made
a cathedral ceiling
of the roof of my mouth--
i swallowed gravel 
from the yard
in the bathroom mirror
i would pull at them
& their monster angles--
i would wonder how
long i would have
to stand there & press
on them to get my teeth 
to line up right--
i wanted braces--
i would get them in sparkly
blue like katie &
when they came off
i would have a mouth full
of piano keys 
to play with my tongue--
the only song i could
ever really play 
on piano was hot crossed buns--
i've spent years leaning
up against the backs
of my own teeth & when
i walked through the river
of rocks 
at the base of hawk mountain 
i couldn't help but
open my mouth to
pull out the rattle snakes--

now i'm 21 
& trying to smile
with my mouthful--
in the foggy bathroom mirror
i noticed
my teeth are growing more
crooked than ever-- 
on the bottom
my incisors jut into each
other like quartz crystal 
formations 
& my canines
howl through the cave 
of my mouth-- their
pirouettes both elegant 
& unnatural--
i'm here to praise my
crooked teeth--
i want to use them
this morning as
stepping stones
into the garden
we never planted-- the
one with the pumpkins
& the sunflowers--
weeds grew beneath my
tongue so i let them--
i'm here to praise 
the honey suckle bush 
for growing wild--
to praise the ivy for 
clawing us apart 
brick by bleeding
brick-- i tossed a 
brick at the glass 
windows of my teeth 
& they shattered
into a poem--
i'll walk on my 
crooked teeth
to cross the creek--
i'll put some of them
into my pockets 
to take home & keep 
with my fossil collection--
my teeth shake like
stone fern leaves--
they become as loose
as wind chimes--
sing my mouth full of howl--
full of bathroom mirror
mist--

i will smile 
my whole mouth full--
i will play you
a song on only 
the black keys 
& i will 
grow wild as a honey suckle 
bush--
from under my tongue
i'll grab a bouquet
of sunflowers--
these are for you--
for kissing the boy
lips bruised by bricks 
& crooked teeth