A Poem by Beth SKMorris

Let Me Down Easy

"Let Me Down Easy . . . 
We are broken by others but we mend ourselves"

                               -- Paulo Nutini

Yesterday, the Tooth Fairy left two dollars
under her pillow, payment for each space
in her mouth, the whooshing sound she makes

when she speaks.  Abigail showed me the baby
teeth she lost, saved in two boxes:  one for the top
tooth, the other for the bottom, and I thought--

wouldn't it be soothing to have a box or two
for my own useless losses; to close the lid,
bury them deep inside my dresser drawer

knowing that the Tooth Fairy could still
find them, exchange the dried-up regrets
for something joyous and surprising?

Yesterday, I took a picture of Abigail smiling
for the camera and realized, The Tooth Fairy's
done her job, for both of us

Beth SKMorris is the author of two books of poetry:  In Florida (2010) and Nowhere to be Found (2014).  Her poems have appeared in Atemis Journal, Avocet, Poetica, the PEN, and online in Screw Iowa! and Bridle Path Press, as well as in anthologies by White Oak Press, the International Library of Poetry, and Poets of the Palm Beaches among others.  Beth is a member of the Hudson Valley Writers Center in New York and a seven-year participant in the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Delray Beach, Florida.