Epilogue: Lend Me Your Teeth

By Alabama Stone

Issue 34 • Fall 2016 • Poetry

THIRD PLACE POETRY IN THE 2016 SUMMER CONTEST

A searing yet crystallized retention of a fraught bond between two people. “My lover’s teeth–vinegar yellow”–when I read that, I carried that image with me for weeks–it has not left me since.

– Ocean Vuong

My lover’s teeth—vinegar yellow.
Wet and shining like bleach.
I prefer the perverse:
the oil from your hands,
a cheap magic trick,
muscadines or mescaline,
I need something to change your mind.

In the end, the earth eats us all.
Death is just a matter of dirt.
Slug stomp and I sobbed & sobbed.
Bring me wet earth
to chew. Granma’s
chinaware to bite down on.
A corn cob or steel pipe.
Break your watch on my back
molars; lend me your teeth.

for Diane Seuss

Alabama Stone

Alabama Stone is not from Alabama—she is from the swampy wetlands of North Carolina. Raised on the humidity of the South, she relies on her family name for inspiration. Her work has appeared in Crab Fat Magazine; along with and forthcoming in, Voicemail Poems, The Found Poetry Review, The Corradi, The Voice, and featured in (parenthetical): words on pages. She feels grateful. Very grateful. Always grateful. Alabama enjoys bourbon, strangers, words, and lamplight—she is disenchanted by most other things. She is pursuing an MFA in Poetry at North Carolina State University.