Rooted into oblivion
Set feet first in dirt
Lumpy cavities crashing upward
Gnarly outer layer
Barnacles breaking out
Lost in the years of growth
Final storm tips the top
Brushing through cracking limb
Tipping with lost balance
Exposing twisted lines
Broken from the earth
Woman or tree
Still beautiful to me
No time to worry over cavities
Under these circumstances—
Temptation has surfaced
Caution slips away like weak dentures
Answering desire—
Kindled peanuts
Ensconced in ginger syrup.
is the private chaos
that no one shares
or can translate.
The confusing question
is too difficult
to articulate
in little, shallow pools
of words or
trying for meaning.
Resounding
windchimes
don't just sway
without
sound,
or hope
of being heard.
They should be noticed
dangling
on the left end
of an uncared for
garden shed.
Walking into the woods
barefoot
in my backyard
on a Friday night
and sensing movement
in wings and song
is company enough
to fulfill one
of the cavities
other than those in teeth.
Something unarticulated
fills the indentation
and the hollows
of a rickety body
I call my own.
Through a work-study program, I landed my first job at a candy store.
A Willy Wonka wonderland of sorts.
Rows of empty calories and future cavities.
The pay was 2.75 an hour; I'd have worked for free.
Within 3 weeks, I stacked on ten pounds of virgin acne.
A short time before that, I'd interviewed at a meat processing plant.
Took a polygraph test.
Didn't get the job and felt rejected.
The good lord bush wacked me onto a different path.
Led me away from cow carcasses and death.
Straight into the forest of Lord Licorice and Candyland.
Embedded and dormant,
they neither wake nor sleep
but defer and endure
until a sun-seeded air
percolates in countless
humming sepulchral lungs.
There is a foretelling,
an imminent rustle of shoveling wings -
the soil erupts,
whirlwinds swarm tree and leaf.
Now begins the cacophony,
the drumbeat of innate necessity.
Wing plates thrum
against chitinous abdomens,
a fretsaw orchestra hollows out
cavities for creation.
Grasping obsessions
become strangleholds of insemination,
then unto death do they pour.
We who sweep away or step upon
their stiffly crinkled corpses,
to our numbed ears comes a solace
as the raucous interlude abruptly ends,
nor do most keep account of the years,
until the next pronouncement
of yet another reincarnation blares forth.
Distant birdsongs
return from frozen fields,
A Carolina Wren jabs and hops
inside a thin ring of pale sunlight.
In the back of a cold season
the wind dresses a scarecrow
with spiny feathers under raven rags.
Ice scabs scratch sod and mulch.
One inaugural leaf
invites a green legend,
It will be weeks before
chill cavities fill chambers
with warm blood,
creaturehood
awakes to death or life.
the desserts were bragging they had stolen my tooth
It was cake and ice cream, both hailed from Duluth
They were obscene, bragging with outrageous smiles
I wanted them to go away, at least a hundred miles
I knew they had taken other teeth from me too
I had lost several to cavities, and it made me blue
The desserts were boasting they had stolen from me
I wanted them to fall off the edge and end up in the sea
The average bird considers it best
to sleep at night inside a nest.
When a squirrel wants to catch some z's,
he uses cavities in trees.
A bat, of course, must play the clown
and slumbers upside down.
A few articulate with humor and grief,
others are hinged
so that ears can hear each other.
Many bones are scaffolds
for vision, prayer and procreation.
One hollow bone hums in the throat,
it channels the smoky saxophones
of consciousness.
When death comes to nibble holes
into breastplates and ramparts
an osseous honeycomb of memory
forms caves,
cavities for disembodied thoughts.
Mind, of course, has always had
its own immortal bones and marrow,
and so even
the humble bitsy sparrow.
I love you
Sounds like candy
When it rolls off your tongue
So sweet
It's bound to fill my mouth
With cavities
I imagine you talking to me
I go word by word
Visualizing the eye contact
Dreaming of the way
Your voice sounds
I listen to your audio messages
Basking in the bliss
Smiling like the first time I heard them
Euphoric in the way
I can hear your smile
When you speak
I pop your words
Like sugar pills
Darn
Dentist
Dreadful deed
Damned if you do
Dah! Damned if you don’t
Disturbing drill din daunts
Drat! Delectable doughnuts
Digging deep childhood cavities
Done! Drear disposition diminished
Displaying the dazzling disarming smile
A yawn has caught me by surprise.
Screwed up my face,
With mouth opened wide.
See all the cavities and fillings inside.
Momma said," You need a nap!"
Nothing I could say,
Would get me away.
Off to my bed,
It would appear.
My once yearly nap,
I might miss something, I fear!
I'll pretend to sleep,
Close my eyes,
Not let out a peep.
Let out a small snore,
Before Momma closes the door.
Then I'll arise,
Play quietly inside.
Two hours later,
Much to my surprise,
I woke up on the floor.
The yawn defeated me again,
Theres' always tomorrow to fight it off to the end!
she is felt still
a tongue tip
recalls her grave
it speaks tenderly
i had her crowned
yet such a royal regalia
did not suit
her innate modesty
she was a tireless waitress
who served up
treats and sugars
with a candied Mona Lisa smile
a love lost is not rootless
yet it must speak from a hollow filling
the heart of which
turns upon cavities of regret
decades later
i eat
these empty words
yet still enjoy them
foods that make cavities are fudges, caramels and iced cake
chocolate ice cream with peppermint candy cavities make.
Fish, milk, cheese and healthy eggs are waiting in the wings.
they make your teeth strong and hard among other things
Not all sweets are true
Sometimes, it hurts the tooth and
Add cavities too.
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