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reading about teeth, i learn babies are born with 20, formed in utero, waiting below the gums. your teeth are deciduous and permanent: by the time you’re 13, you’ll have all your adult teeth. incisor, canine, bicuspid, molar. by that logic, a teenager is old enough to be tried as an adult. i never dream about teeth, unless by dream you mean daydream, and by teeth you mean yours. yours are upper middle class teeth, straight teeth, teeth that cut, tear, crush, grind. your zahnreihe, the perfect symmetry of it. enamel, dentin, nerves, pulp. in another life, you’d be on a toothpaste commercial. in this life, you and your teeth have been relegated to the nightly news. when you lost your milk teeth, did you put them under a pillow, send them skyward, offer them to the sun? when you smile, you smile with your mouth open.
