Words by John Peter Beck | Images by Emily Rankin

It may seem a tale told

among old wives

or a popular torturing

of the statistic,

but I lost

two classmates

to suicide, no chance

at redemption,

perhaps a joint

dental practice in hell.

I am sure they felt alone,

more alone

than anyone should feel.

St. Apollonia, your tormentors

broke your teeth

daring you to pray

to a merciful God

with your shattered mouth.

You are the patron

of all dentists.

I think of your pain,

each time I work to set right

a crooked smile.

I hope you hold

my classmates of decades ago

in your saintly prayers, reach out

to them in their torment which came

after they sought an end

to torment, bring them

any cool, comforting touch,

whatever saving grace

that heaven may allow.

John Peter Beck is a professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University where he co-directs a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace, Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives. His poetry has been published in a number of journals including The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review and Passages North among others.

Emily Rankin was born in Riverside, California and attended university in Texas, where she received a BFA in 2011. Her body of work deals with the tangles of human emotion and understanding, the intuitive messages of dreaming and subconsious exploration. Her work has appeared in such publications as Gasher, Raw Art Review, Meat for Tea, Landlocked, and Rattle. She's based in New Mexico. eerankinart.com