I are all teeth all shinywhite all bloodgummed
and swollen // I are no braced not creamy with fur
Remember how daddy said birfday // The careful lush
of that word and then his lips would pull back
Look: is your mouth born // your mouth wet birth
or sulpher egg filled to nest // is your palate the only meat in there
Eat at your black eat fingernails // eat the way
daddy used to say birf with pulpy spit and all that porcelain
His mouth was wide and had all the language // I were born
from that mouth and unborn // I were wombed there
Birf was promise and threat // remember how daddy
made his mouth parch how he took back that wet word
I are dry I are thick is saliva // So desert so wilds
in dryness // I are not given the word // I are not delivered
