NaPoWriMo: Extract from 'Small Hands'

(...) In the back bedroom is a box

China cracked and glued back together,

Where my milk teeth sour.

I held them in small hands,

quickly too big

and replaced the weight of them

with Fairytales.

I’d never tell you

Just pull on loose teeth

And find magic in the copper of blood

The barbed wire edge 

We found you

In the back bedroom

Plaiting the hair of Barbie dolls

When mine was knot and hairspray backcomb

Tucking the whisper of

Childhood into bed at tea time

As the door slammed behind me 

Guilt rose in a heartburn chest

Where the dance floor turned back to kitchen tiles

You said that ironing

Was a way of remembering

And smile when you found opals in my mouth that I’d mistaken for teeth.

~ Natasha Borton