This may be odd to add as a blog post, but I thought I'd ignore convention and post it. After reading Ross Gray's Ode to Buttoning and Unbuttoning My Shirt, I was inspired to write this poem about a daily ritual: flossing.
On Flossing My Teeth
Dinner's done.
Dishes washed.
Time to floss.
I open the drawer,
look at you
invitingly
and
reach for the floss.
I pull our a strand
tasting of mint and coated in wax
and
offer it to you.
You smile, shake your head,
and
roll your eyes.
Wrapping it around one tooth and then another
in a way that I can't wrap around you.
I linger
thinking of you.
You of the independent mind.
You of "don't tell me what to do."
I force the thread through one tooth and then another
knowing I can control the floss
unlike you.
I gently pull back and forth
again and again
feeling the crunch of the kernel clutching my gum
back and forth
back and forth
until it breaks free.
So unlike you.
So unbreakable.
So already free.
The uncontrollable you.
The man with his independent ways
The man who I love.
