novocaine

Yesterday I picked blood from under my nails and hiccuped eight times in a row. Today a dentist reached into my mouth and pried out the small sliver of tooth that had, like an iceberg breaking free from a glacier, splintered away from my molar and lodged itself deep in my gums. Stiff in the reclining chair, I couldn't stop thinking of horses, of the way my hands circled each other, strangling, of stretching my neck free and letting
it
all
become

falling.