Listerine

[michikonogami]

My mother once asked me how long
one should gargle mouthwash for. I
looked up at her slowly, and she looked
down at me with large eyes-- still curving
the sting between her teeth and gums,
tar and plaque, lover and daughter.
"Until it stops hurting" I lectured-- and,
feeling her epiphanic approval, smiled
back to my bedroom across the hall.
I was ten.