diff --git a/src/main/glam/xtdb/span.clj b/src/main/glam/xtdb/span.clj
index 807580b..5274d71 100644
--- a/src/main/glam/xtdb/span.clj
+++ b/src/main/glam/xtdb/span.clj
@@ -95,14 +95,11 @@
 (gxe/deftx add-token [node span-id token-id]
   (xutil/add-join** node span-id :span/tokens token-id))
 
-;; Note: this should NOT be used more than once in a single transaction on a given span, or else its
-;; deletion behavior will not work properly.
-;; TODO: is this still true now that this is a tx fn?
 (declare remove-token**)
 (gxe/deftx remove-token [node span-id token-id]
   (let [base-txs (xutil/remove-join** node span-id :span/tokens token-id)]
     (if (= 1 (-> (gxe/entity node span-id) :span/tokens count))
-      (into base-txs [(gxe/delete* span-id)])
+      (into base-txs (delete** node span-id))
       base-txs)))
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/glam/xtdb/text.clj b/src/main/glam/xtdb/text.clj
index c4e6186..c4fe998 100644
--- a/src/main/glam/xtdb/text.clj
+++ b/src/main/glam/xtdb/text.clj
@@ -34,14 +34,6 @@
 
 
 ;; Mutations ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-(defn get-span-ids [node eid]
-  (map first (xt/q (xt/db node)
-                   '{:find  [?span]
-                     :where [[?span :span/tokens ?tok]
-                             [?tok :token/text ?txt]]
-                     :in    [?txt]}
-                   eid)))
-
 (defn get-token-ids [node eid]
   (map first (xt/q (xt/db node)
                    '{:find  [?tok]
@@ -63,13 +55,9 @@
         tx (reduce into [text-tx deletion-tx update-tx])]
     tx))
 
-;; We don't follow the usual pattern of relying on child nodes' delete** functions here because
-;; this would lead to children being included multiple times. Instead, we write a bespoke fn.
 (gxe/deftx delete [node eid]
-  (let [span-deletes (mapv gxe/delete* (get-span-ids node eid))
-        token-deletes (mapv gxe/delete* (get-token-ids node eid))
+  (let [token-deletes (reduce into (mapv #(tok/delete** node %) (get-token-ids node eid)))
         text-delete [(gxe/delete* eid)]]
     (reduce into
-            [span-deletes
-             token-deletes
+            [token-deletes
              text-delete])))
diff --git a/src/main/glam/xtdb/token.clj b/src/main/glam/xtdb/token.clj
index f88907a..a015816 100644
--- a/src/main/glam/xtdb/token.clj
+++ b/src/main/glam/xtdb/token.clj
@@ -176,8 +176,6 @@
 (defn set-begin [node eid n] (set-extent node eid {:new-begin n}))
 (defn set-end [node eid n] (set-extent node eid {:new-end n}))
 
-;; We don't follow the usual pattern of relying on child nodes' delete** functions here because
-;; this would lead to children being included multiple times. Instead, we write a bespoke fn.
 (gxe/deftx delete [node eid]
   (let [spans (get-span-ids node eid)]
     (into