The Teeth We've Lost

it was a long surrender. an endless panic. as the world tried and failed to catch its breath. 

life goes in and out of focus on the conveyor belt that is our experience. 

sometimes it's a single color. sometimes it's all of them. this eruption of living that devours us. 

we say we know. even when we don't. because time is always listening. and truth is fickle. 

the moments flicker and hum like lingering fluorescents left on too long. 

we dig into the soil. embracing the mud. relieved to find we can still be cleansed. 

we don't know what lost is, but we know the feeling. the stone in our gut. all of its sharp edges searching for an exit. 

we never say it out loud. how long its been. 

but we still keep count.