Abstract

I Can Feel My Teeth is a collection of semi-autobiographical poems exploring the different forms discomfort and denial may take. The title refers to an observation I have continuously made throughout my life that the only times you can feel your teeth are when you, body or mind, are unwell. My poems utilize nature imagery and animal comparisons in unusual ways to further deepen the speaker’s denial. If animals are part of nature, then surely the speaker’s pain is natural as well. Scattered throughout the collection are references to the speaker’s motherland, a place infested with memories and vermin, which serve to heighten the isolation felt in the other poems. The speaker has no outlet for this discomfort, and as a result turns inward towards their work, further distancing themselves from society. I Can Feel My Teeth has no happy ending, because there is nothing in the speaker’s future except for more of the same, reflecting the tedium of life in quarantine. It’s not all bad though. In the poem’s own words, “Don’t the continents look happy?”