Dave Bonta's "Orality" is a small, strange poem that circles around one image: a thin mouth. The speaker treats it almost like a discovery, something found inside everything else they notice. The mouth seems to belong to the act of discovering itself, as if looking at the world always means running into mouths, speech, and the want to say something.
The comparisons are what make it interesting. A thin mouth is "thin as the letter i," a narrow upright stroke, and "thin as the word poor," which shifts from the shape of a letter to a feeling of lack. The repeated questions about who is making the mouth and who desires it leave the poem unsettled. It isn't clear whether the mouth is being shaped, spoken, or wanted, or by whom.
The mood is quiet, spare, and a little hungry. Nothing is explained, so the poem leaves you with a sense of thinness, scarcity, and longing carried by language.