Teeth

♥️It is riveting how you draw from John Locke to describe your creative process. ♥️Your use of Alliteration in 'narrow notions' and 'carving cusps' shows the completeness of your vision. I especially loved the percussive quality of the Plosives in 'tenacious teeth tearing into tough tissue.' Those harsh, splitting sounds made the effort feel incredibly real.

There’s a quiet strength here in every line, like you’re reclaiming your space in the world.

Looks like Bill beat me to it hahaha. I too was gonna say that the liver analogy was brilliant! Also, that photo is super adorable! 😍😍😍😍😍

This is absolutely awesome, Aspen! I love everything about it. Your analogy about liver; what the Greeks believed about the seat of the soul; a palace of mirrors. So much poignant imagery/energy here. I love the form. I love the way you break it down, with so few words, and some lines that are a single word. It adds to the weight. It's like a sinking feeling as you scroll. This hits especially hard for me👉 <<Knowing for a While now This brain is Wired differently First I reflect Then I feel >> I can relate so relate to this. I turned 65 this week. When I was 59, I started having epileptic seizures that destroyed my cognition, my memory, and also my self-confidence and sense of identity. Getting on the right regiment of drugs to control the seizures took a few years and each mixture of drugs had different side effects. I finally got on a mix that seemed to prevent most of the seizures... ... but it seemed to 'amp' my emotions. Then, after thinking my emotions were 'amped', which is why I have terrible mood swings, from euphoria to rage and down to depression, I sought out more help and learned I've been bipolar all my life. I'm an oddball on top of my condition(s). My brain is wired differently too. I'm fascinated by the idea of thinking before feeling too. I don't know if that fits me or not. It's something I want to reflect on. I'm very emotional at this stage in my life but a lot of that is because I've experienced a lot of loss. I have no family left alive. I'm Aquarius, though, and I fit that: aloof, supposedly. I am unpredictable. But I just over-analyze something fierce. I feel and then can't stop thinking about it. But, I am home alone most of the time so I do have a lot of thinking time. I just love this poem. I also think you make a really talented choice here in your title... because it's fairly deep into the poem before we learn the significance of the title. And personally, I'm very impressed when a one-word title hits with such impact. You're a wonderful poet! ⚡💙 Bill⚡