top of page

C.N.P Poetry 

Writer's pictureCathexis Northwest Press

Root Canal

By: Zachery Noah Rahn



My teeth are holy:

they have cavities

slit tongue and make

a stutter me sing out

groans my dentist asks

if I still candy binge

it’s bad for my health

I won’t give it up I know

the holes they’ll get worse

maybe I’ll conjure oral

surgery

if I die tomorrow

then would I care

I chew me up

my boy left me

candy from Jalisco

when he gone cold

that summer his body

his body his body croaked

my tongue can’t speak

my head can’t brain

when I sleep at night

I crave chocolate

bees count my teeth

I swear I hear them

grinding caverns of grit

and grainy minerals

zizzing tunnels in my mouth

boy’s dead now his neck

his neck his neck his neck

swallowed his jaw bone

one sting was all it took

for him to be pulp

stolen from my gums

a root canal of human life




 

Zachery Noah Rahn (he/him) is a queer poet and essayist with a bachelor's in Writing & Linguistics from Georgia Southern University. He enjoys watching horror movies, rollerblading, and spending time with his cat. You can find his work in Alien Literary Magazine, Stone of Madness Press, mutiny! Magazine, and select other journals. Follow him on Twitter @zacheryrahn

Commentaires


bottom of page