are you ever wet?
did you know the stomach is coated with mucus?
its to make sure you don't digest yourself.
sometimes i’m a nasty set of teeth.
google “canine dentistry”
its like that.

my dad used to put red pepper flakes–
the kind you’d put on pizza?-
into our backyard bird feeders.
the birds can’t taste the burn, the spice,
but the squirrels can, so they stay away.
and dogs, their nasty teeth, can taste it too.