Audrey Beaton

tooth whitener

I brush my teeth on the long drive.
your new face slips.
yesterday, I cut the roof of my mouth
on one of those little plastic floss picks that
are killing the planet and now I am
weathering the sting of cleanliness.

the mirror crooks inward and
the whole land tilts, strewn on its side.
in another car, on another night,
he shows me his gun—
loads it and unloads it while I wait
for him to take me home or kill me.

you tell me we had to get hurt.
I spit out the window
to leave a trace of myself somewhere.

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Hailing from Michigan, Audrey Beaton studied Korean and English with a focus in Creative Writing at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. They graduated in May of 2024 and currently teach English as a Second Language. Their work has been published in The Broadkill Review and Cornell’s Rainy Day Literary Magazine. They have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.