WHY I WRITE A POEM A DAY

My son stopped giving his teeth
to the tooth fairy
even though we said if he did
we’d give him two dollars
because his sister still believes in fairies
and we want to be fair

but he has kept the last few for himself
in a little container

which I didn’t think much of
until he asked me yesterday

mama, can I make a necklace out of my teeth

and it is as though this single question
ruptured the dam of all the strange
and unsolvable questions
my children have ever asked me

so that my rational mind
is suddenly flooded
and I can’t think of what to say
or what I even think about this question

until finally he breaks the silence
with a compromise

or just a pendant, maybe

which cracks open a drain below me
and the flood falls away
and I remember that, so often,
in the absurdity of parenting,
laughter is the only answer.