A Loose Tooth

Originally published in These Mosaics: Poems from a Yearlong Writing Challenge

Aching
Abscess
Sharp pain
Sharp smell
Sharp call to yank it out
pull it out
  get the thing out, now.
It aches again
and again
pulsing
even as my hand goes
to my cheek
and the tooth crumbles
as does another and
another and
another
until I wake
from the dream
relieved
and not,
as I consider
what I stand
to lose.