this is where it ends after a tooth extraction
by Jeff William Acosta
[Editor’s Note: This piece is part of the “Topical” series, with each piece solely submitted to and chosen by the Final Reader Pietra Dunmore.]
I lay my body in a field of bougainvillea
petals as I would if I am to be draped
in lilacs—no inch for mechanical body
nor all the moving parts cocooning
my shadow, or the ocean waves rising
and falling inside the concaved gums
as I bite down this gauze full of rusting
iron and copper scent. I have never been
so lost in an image where my tooth clings
firmly on to the jawbone. The tongue
remembers the touch as if it was meant
to rekindle the skinship. Now swallowing
has never been this so tormenting: whenever
I open my mouth, it means something
is missing: you whose name I never get
to hear often by the ear but lives beneath
the memory of the lips
Jeff William Acosta is a Filipino poet from Ilocos Sur, Philippines. His works appeared or are forthcoming in 聲韻詩刊 Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine, The Dark Horse, CAROUSEL, Olit and among others. Find him at jeffwilliamacosta.weebly.com
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What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “this is where it ends after a tooth extraction”? I wrote this poem after I got my first tooth surgery. While in the process, my tongue keeps touching my swollen and bleeding gums as if mourning or the gap makes my tongue want to fill what is lost, even when my dentist said that I shouldn’t. There is uneasiness. There’s this want like lust that lingers for hours. And for two days, I imagine myself just lying on the ground, on what my deathbed will look like—I think of death, of love and of someone that I used to know, and that the only thing I can do is remember, which is the closest thing to forgetting.
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