This Is How We Love Now

With memory. With cruelty. With teeth.

This isn’t a love poem.
Not the way they like them.

It’s a dissection. A forensic look at the way we touch and call it tenderness.
At the way we bleed and still say thank you.
At the way we all keep pretending our mouths aren’t full of memory.

Because we don’t bite meat anymore—
we bite each other.

We do it with soft hands, with whispered sorrys,
with slow kisses that turn into emotional autopsies.
We do it in the name of closeness.
And maybe that’s worse.

This poem came from the place in me that’s still baring its teeth.
From the part that remembers how easy it is to confuse cruelty for care when it's handed to you in the shape of love.

“Canines” is not here to inspire you.
It’s here to name what most people flinch from.

And if you’ve ever felt the quiet ache of being held too gently
by someone who never really put the knife down—
you’ll know exactly what this poem is saying.

---

Canines

There is a reason we still have them.
The pointed teeth.
The knives tucked into our mouths like we might need them again.

We
say we’ve evolved—
but the body remembers.
The jaw remembers.

The part of us that tore things apart
just to feel full
has never left.

We don’t rip meat anymore—
we rip people.
We tear through trust, through tenderness,
through anything soft enough to believe we’ve changed.

We call it instinct.
But it’s cruelty.
Learned.
Refined.
Passed down like family silver.

We smile now when we bite.
We say sorry after.

We hurt each other so quietly
it almost sounds like language.

And still the teeth remain—
because mercy is optional.
But the hunger never was.

---

🖤
This is from my ongoing series Anatomy of the Unsaid—
where every poem is an incision.

You can subscribe to feel it with me, or just read and leave quietly.

Either way, I hope it follows you.

© 2025 Solena Vyhra. All rights reserved.
This work is part of the poetry collection The Anatomy of the Unsaid.
No part of this poem, including text or visual design, may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the author.
For inquiries, permissions, or collaborations, please contact: solenavyhra@gmail.com

Illustration and layout by Solena Vyhra.
Typography: Special Elite (poem titles), Signature (author tag).
Published on Substack via Where Silence Becomes Ritual.