your first loose milk tooth snapped      from wiry gumvein
            wet pearl tumbling into palm      as you stood in the garden

you’d pulled & pulled till tissue tendril untethered      & clumpy clots
            seeped      crimson ink blotting      your bottom lip

you thought this is what it’s like      to bleed      to pour out      to press
            detached incisor onto finger pads      grubby

you cradle-cupped the fang in jam hands      put it in a jar      rattled it
            ringing      to fluster the maya      chirping in the durian tree

but lolo snatched the thing      hid it under rafters for luck
            you shrieked      trilled indignant      but he just laughed

nights after      a dream of molars      falling from your mouth
            & you recalled the old warning:      when you dream

of rotting teeth      chew on old wood      or someone you love
            will pass away      but you told no one      sneered sour

at broom handles      used matches      lola’s cracked rosary
            its beads carved from an olive tree that once grew in Bethlehem

soon lolo took ill      his canines jutted      tips protruding like aswang
            ashen      & when he died      moths clustered over his casket

ghostly bouquet      this is what it’s like to kill      to cause to die
            to snuff a life quick      & you recalled the old saying:

when white moths gather      the dead flutter among them
            so you smudged candlewax      coaxed it into the shape of wings

thorax      abdomen      took storm-fallen branches      bit hard
            till splinters barbed your tongue      you tried to undream

float your milk tooth from the roof      to nestle it safe
            in your mouth      & snatch it      snatch it all back