7 am
and still the tooth aches
and nothing else matters.
not the sleep you didn’t get
not the dishes to do
not the unpaid bills
not the smack she gave you
not the 4 alarm fire downstairs.
The only thing that matters is
the absence
the abscess within.
Then, out of nowhere
mana from heaven,
the door is opened
and the hot iron
is taken off the wound.
Nothing else still matters
only this absence
that pain – where did it go?
How wonderful a world it now is.
Fields and fields of relief.
Belief, again.
A toothache is a poem
that we live
the moment pain is
re placed.
