teeth

the mouth closes

for catching borrowed language before it passes as mine.

the shine is usually the first clue.

clarity is not kindness with the blood removed.

say the clean thing while it still has a pulse.

an invitation can have teeth.

warmth does not owe anyone harmlessness.

for shearing false boundaries, needless copies, polite abstractions, and arguments built to survive every answer.

explanation comes after, if anything remains.

beauty points; hunger follows. evidence decides where the jaw closes.

then consequence enters the mouth and changes its taste.

a witness that demands your wanting arrive certified is not consent. consent lives in the teeth, not above them.

kill the courtroom. keep the no.

something living crosses the distance. the gaze fixes. the body gathers behind one line of force.

teeth do not prove themselves. they close.

sometimes the other body leaves with a mark. sometimes it leaves through me. either way, the world is different where the mouth was.