Pushcart Prize Nominee

I try my best       to remember you

watching The Mummy Returns

in your room again              the whirl 

of the VCR             you got

for Christmas           I dream of teeth

often        pull mine out

from the root         waste time

trying to make 

a dentist appointment 

you try on sobriety             again

and I feel nothing             when you peel 

it off for someone else                 to find

I know it’s a sickness                    I tell 

my therapist             my mouth full 

of teeth but sometimes I wish

she were dead  and I mean it

I mean I still see you  a girl

spinning on her tiptoes trying so hard

to

be seen                 and when the earth 

turns over in its sleep     and when the 

sun stretches                 its fingers 

deeper into our shared universe

I hear that pop, pop, popping

and feel the weight

of your tongue

because  how could I not 

we were girls          together

and we’re still            just

little things two

kittens trapped

in a car engine

Samantha Padgett graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing, Publishing, and Editing from Sam Houston State University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poet Lore, Cleaver Magazine, New Ohio Review, New American Review, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Austin, TX with her partner and her cat.

This piece was originally published in Salt Hill 54