I haven’t met my Mom yet,
but when we talked on the phone she told me
but when we talked on the phone she told me
that, like me, she is addicted to finding shark teeth,
is also the slowest walker on any beach.
She told me that she and her brothers
(the uncles I’ve never met)
filled mayonnaise jars
with shark teeth when they were kids.
In the mail today I got a necklace
from her, which of course is a shark tooth,
the biggest one I’ve never found,
which is now resting between my breasts
the same way it rested between the breasts
of the grandmother I’ve never met,
the breasts that nursed the mom
I’ve never met, a black triangle hidden in cleavage,
danger in the deep, unseen,
unspoken of, like me.
She told me that she and her brothers
(the uncles I’ve never met)
filled mayonnaise jars
with shark teeth when they were kids.
In the mail today I got a necklace
from her, which of course is a shark tooth,
the biggest one I’ve never found,
which is now resting between my breasts
the same way it rested between the breasts
of the grandmother I’ve never met,
the breasts that nursed the mom
I’ve never met, a black triangle hidden in cleavage,
danger in the deep, unseen,
unspoken of, like me.
