While dog-sitting for my sister my tooth broke

It’s this one over here in the back, up top.
At first, I thought it was maybe something I bit into
Then I realized it was just me, falling apart.

I’ve been meaning to get it fixed but,
the GI bill doesn’t cover medical or dental anymore
since we're making america great again, ya know,
but I’ve kind of gotten used to it.

And now when I’m stressed and need a small place for myself
I can pull my tongue back and nestle it in the once filled cavity
If I get the angle just right I can slice my tongue on its jagged corners.

I used to have nightmares about my teeth shattering all at once,
muffle a burbling red sob, and wake up grabbing for my mouth.
People always say we need a little something for ourselves.
Maybe I need the blackened rotting void

This is probably irrational, but I’m also the kind of guy who reads PKD
while having an existential crisis like Tolstoy, only I keep stopping
when he says that I’m an accidentally united little lump of fermenting something.
Maybe I’ll put a day in my planner to plan on planning to go to the dentist.

Nicholas Boyer spent 6 years in the USAF with one tour overseas. After finishing his military service, Nicholas moved to Alaska and lived in a dry cabin for a year, searching for himself and creating art. Currently Nicholas studies philosophy and his poetry’s content varies in subject matter from war & politics, appreciation & questions of existence, to love poems written to lamps.