I am always writing about the mouth

how it feels to chew, to bite down.

I am still waiting for the day I dream where all my teeth fall out.

We are here to embrace rot

I take the sugar water from the hummingbird feeders and carefully

paint each tooth before sleep

give way

verb.

to crumble

to fall inwards

to surrender

I swallow molars whole,

conjure the memory of tastes that have crossed my tongue.

Without the prairie grasses holding the earth in place

it crumbles.

Damming the river, muddying the water

until it looks red in the fading light.