Teeth

By Becky Bei

The family at the reunion dinner is a rebrand of bluetooth

White tooth maybe, but it's rotting in a drawer, not telling stories at the river

About straits shaped like dragon teeth: Long Ya Men, Dragon-toothed Gate

It can only exchange compliments with unstable connection and antiquated updates,

Bogged down with most code written in the wrong language,

language that the programmer sung forgotten songs in

Because compliments are the most exciting stories they can tell,

swayed by arguments between the matriarchs, debt between the patriarchs

They left the table after the six-hundred-dollar urn floated up again,

arranged with the other nameless dead in neat rows and columns and floors

On the floor the children fiddle with cartoons, ignore

the sudden document dispatches, misdirected to unsuspecting doe eyed infants

_____ ____ ___ __ _

Becky Bei is a writer from Asia, where she is studying in secondary school.