HORRIFIC CONFECTION by Juliet Cook - BlazeVOX

It was the Shark Tooth Capital of the World.
With a little persistence, we could have dug up
plenty of fossilized teeth on the beach.
But she was already spouting the bleach.
Yellow jug, plastic bucket, a different kind of burning.
They didn’t have visible mouths, but I heard them
turning white. For years, I dyed my hair black;
sometimes burned the scalp. Pretended to be tough
and uncaring and maybe I am like my mother.
She said just pluck the beastie away.
She said this is how everyone does it.
She said just don’t think about it that way.
But sometimes I think of my heart as a sea urchin.
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