“Brushing My Teeth”

“Brushing My Teeth”

I try not to think of the slaves on the ships

Who caught the fish ground up to feed

The Asian shrimp I ate in my stir-fry,

A flake of which goes down the drain

As I brush my teeth in northern New England.

I wrote a short piece about writing this poem for the 2017 edition of Visions Unlimited–the literary journal of River Valley Community College:

Writing a poem