ELZA

Milk Tooth Bane Bone
-Daniela Elza
i.

I lost my first tooth at six--
threw it on the roof for crows
chanting:

Here Crow is my bone tooth!
Give me one as strong as iron!

Imagined a crow
lining her nest with milk teeth

Worried when
the rains came down in torrents:

Can a tooth get washed away
before a crow finds it?

But always a new tooth grew.

ii.

A child a crow
and a chant stretched
(between them--

a promise one dares
not enough to break.

In the little fist-- a tooth
in the mouth-- a rhyme:

Na ti vrano kosten zoub
dai me ti zhelezen zoub.

A yarn (so fine) around my finger
I wind. Remember

what holds us in Time.

iii.

Here my son sells his tooth to
a purple fairy.
(a coin

(a glance

(an innocent exchange in the night.

But I worry

When some haggle for the price

of this transaction.

I gave my teeth to the crows
and they have not left me alone.