Photo by Alexander Ant
Hypodontia
Jaime Speed
X-rays of an empty space
where her tooth should be
I wonder over little absences:
a missing sock
its useless counterpart
empty gallery showings
translations
the loop a ribbon makes
infinity symbols
someone dancing
on a stage for no one
familiar in the crowd
my heart falling
into empty seats
a little dirt under the arms
where the sun should be
budding like black and white
copies
of the dream I always have
the whip of hair
that hits the doorframe
is identical to my childhood
braids becoming phantom
vacancies
down hallways
she always leaves
the places where I didn’t
do enough a little
untended
nothing surfaces
though she charts the ground
perennially
tonguing at the defect
coughing up the soil
Jaime Speed
X-rays of an empty space
where her tooth should be
I wonder over little absences:
a missing sock
its useless counterpart
empty gallery showings
translations
the loop a ribbon makes
infinity symbols
someone dancing
on a stage for no one
familiar in the crowd
my heart falling
into empty seats
a little dirt under the arms
where the sun should be
budding like black and white
copies
of the dream I always have
the whip of hair
that hits the doorframe
is identical to my childhood
braids becoming phantom
vacancies
down hallways
she always leaves
the places where I didn’t
do enough a little
untended
nothing surfaces
though she charts the ground
perennially
tonguing at the defect
coughing up the soil