Toothy

Ungently, I woke up at 2 am, not sure whether it was a throbbing in my jaw that caused this, or the anxiety attending the realization I am going to have to take action. The fears are taller than me, like the boisterous, intimidating eighth graders at Rainer’s school and the gauntlet they present when you have to walk down the hall where their lockers are, how they sometimes knock each other down or just stand in oblivious little knots of adolescent solipsism. Only. I have an eighth grader of my own at home, so I know the trick where you squint and see that they’re really kids after all and you can squint them back down to size and they just want attention and respect and the expression of all that exuberance. I line the fears all up to face them down:...

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