The Space Between Teeth

I catch the space where a tooth once sat,

a hollow note in my crooked smile.

A small absence, sharp and sudden,

like a comma dropped mid-sentence.

The mirror cracks the image,

a fractured smile that won’t quite close.

I trace the line where the gap opens,

the weight of what’s been lost,

and how it shifts the whole face.

That empty space is louder

than the words I try to say,

a pause that holds too long

in the quiet of morning.