Autumn is the season of falling leaves

childhood is a season of losing teeth

The loss of the first incisors

starts at the dissolving of roots

as though child pulls from their soil

like fish who then walked on land

The metamorphosis entails

shedding vestigial organs,

then the parent

Perhaps gratitude for what remains

only comes when body parts

no longer regenerate.

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Published in Rat's Ass Review, Winter 2021/22