in my head I had a runaway tooth
he ran off to Texas with a masseuse
dumped her for a buxom waitress named Ruth
let lightning strike my bum if this isn’t the truth
I sent an incisor to bring that rascal back
he said I am angry; feel like I am under attack
consumed a huge steak in a café booth
then ran off to Abilene with that waitress, Ruth
I have a big hole where that tooth used to be
I dare not smile, for it is all others can see
That tooth sent me a telegram the other day
Without reading it, I tore it up and threw it away
For Patrice Lumumba
25-06-2025
When you gave back just a tooth
You didn’t even feel ashamed
At all though you knew the truth
You were never deeply blamed
For what you did to Patrice
Lumumba whom you tortured
Then chopped and chopped to pieces
Like an onion you nurtured
Your ego and turned our land
Into a profit death camp
Which fulfilled what you had planned
You took and took to revamp
Belgium thus exploited
All our raw material
Thinking you were anointed
By God to act imperial
No one was prosecuted
For what you put us through
Your deeds can’t be disputed
Even your own crew knows it’s true
When rubber quotas wasn’t met
You cut off my limbs with an axe
To make an example of me on set
Were you proud with all those stacks
And stacks of hands you displayed
Like medals on parade after a race
Were you aware of the game you played
Which was gory yet turned our face
Sad when blood gushed like water from
A hydrant still no remorse
While you just stood there numb
To the course you had to endorse
My parents were strict and arbitrary.
I knew no Easter bunny or tooth fairy.
To get out of the closet at any time,
I was forced to speak in rhyme.
your great-grandmother’s toothache was easily fixed
with lovely cocaine tooth drops, which now are probably nixed.
a predecessor to Novocain, a practice back in the day
many children had to have it, it took pain away
Marvelously fast-acting cocaine tooth drops cost a whole fifteen cents
You could get them over the counter sold by druggist McVents
It might sound odd now, but it was a common practice in 1818.
And your gums felt great afterwards, truly tingly and clean.
The throb deep in the jaw
Nothing else feels quite so sore
Can think about nothing but pain
This is like a brutal campaign
Trying to urgently ring a dentist
Needing pain relief from the chemist
No appointments for several days
Why all the unnecessary delays
Feeling the pain behind my eyes
The intolerable pain is my demise
Nothing even dims this pain
Wanting to slice out the vein
The pain relentless
Working out how I could of prevented this
I brush those teeth twice a day
And the pain doesn’t stay away
The dentist told me to wait 14 weeks
To get that thing pulled from between my cheeks
What an absolute joke
I could have a bloody stroke
Can’t see a doctor or go to a hospital
Just keep putting on something topical
The state of basic public services
Is enough to cause disturbances
Oh I pray the pain to vanish
To a place it can banish
Before the next one comes to have a play
All in an effort to ruin every day
This won’t stop until the bone graft my jaw
The next couple of years I’ll be eating through a straw
Because public services are so woeful
And we are told to be grateful
As the New Year is almost upon us
It’s becoming clear just how rotten
The smiling face of our nation is,
So what better time
To set it straight.
Everywhere you look waste, fraud and abuse
Overflows, as it has for many decades,
But now that the Somali day-care fraud
Is being unearthed,
Not only are the molars seen as totally rotten,
But the gums gingivitis infected as well,
To the extent all the teeth
Now need to be pulled.
And where does that leave US?
Toothless and sore and helplessly vulnerable,
And yet we’d still be alive.
Which is more than it will be
If we don’t root out the rot
Tooth and nail.
(12/28/25)
Filled with trepidation
(not amalgam)
paid a visit to the nearest sadist
he who thrills
to the sound of drills
and not the first
on my Christmas list
(DDS Jack Flash)
as for him it's all gas gas gas
but with an aching tooth
(forsooth and alas)
what else was one to do
but turn the other cheek
in the hope I would pull through
and while seated there in the chair
(to extract a page from his book
Weapons of Mass Dentistry)
with WMD in my north and south
I repeated into thin air
'Dentists all look down in the mouth!'
Toddler tugs at mom’s apron
He’d like to have one more cookie
Nice try, pumpkin ~ dinner’s ready
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
Lost her first tooth today
Daddy kisses baby girl’s crocodile tears away
~ Adorable little smile breaks through
Wordku: 5-7-5 words
AP: Honorable Mention 2025
"Hush now my little darling,
Blow your nose and wipe your eyes."
"The "Tooth Fairy" comes tonight,
And he'll leave a big surprise!"
"So, dry those tears sweet Jim,
Dream of rainbows in the sky."
"And tomorrow when you wake,
A silver coin you will spy!"
Moonlight drifts through midnight dreams,
Such innocence enthralls him.
He tip-toes like a shadow,
But, what plight might befall Jim?
A single pearl rests neath pillow
The evidence gaps young smile.
"Let's peek in my bag of tricks,"
His methods are somewhat vile!
"But, what's this...only "one" tooth?
"Don't dream golden, I'm not through.
"One just won't cut it for me,
But, the rest of them will do!"
"A little drop of ether,
So little Jim won't awake."
"And with all due diligence,
Your little smile I will take!"
Just like he slithered on in,
He slinks out of bedroom door.
Wearing a "Cheshire Cat" grin,
Twenty teeth lie on Jim's floor!
Parents peek into bedroom,
Twenty pearls checkers the rugs.
And right there, next to Jim's head...
Just a bag of silver slugs!
Killing
time
without
wounding
eternity
Life
in the
balance
life
— on the edge
(Red Lodge Montana: August, 2025)
Twilight was the time of day
as well they do concur
about the hour of crepuscular dusk
or evening if you prefer
there in the gloaming
altho' the light was slightly dimmer
I took a look at the situation
and saw more than quite a glimmer
of absolute absurdity the altercation confrontation
as if every nation were to follow the Law
of Exact Retaliation an eye for an eye
we'd all be sightless both you and I
or Reciprocal Justice a tooth for a tooth
for in truth me and you'd
have nothing at all with which to chew
and all done in the name of what
I'll only surmise
it's just for man to prove he can
if so it could be our demise
as we would find
unable to feed we'd go hungry
while the blind lead the blind
12 when I wrote this, from the perspective of a mushroom.
My gills grasping at air, but the grass is not too far;
My scales glimmering stupidly to shine through watered tar.
And in the gaseous tarmac world, I shine here far too bright,
And oh, the air, too stale if for my gills to get it right.
I long to build a house and make a living off of sticks,
Press flowers to make bookmarks. Feather ink dips.
And for one day, to hear ... a knocking or a rattle
Of rats and pigeons at my door. To me, should they grapple
I wished to fly away with birds, claws ripping flesh and all
To find my new roots in the sky: frail, delicate, tall.
I wished to burrow in the ground when I must collapse.
I wish to hide me from the world. I wish for a relapse.
A tingle down my stem, my gills no longer pulchrify
My dirtied shine, my residue: I tell you, "eye for eye."
This vivid tarmac world around me, perfectly reflecting
How little you appreciated when we were worth defending.
He that sleeps feels not the tooth-ache
William Shakespeare
'Cymbeline' (1609-10) act 5, sc. 4, l. [176]
apparently, Mr. Shakespeare never needed a root canal!
Nothing comes without something in return.
You evaluate life with a sense of selfishness,
And never succumb to your own failure.
One moment, life is good
But the dark days made God a man
When the choice was yours.
A life for a life, and sins lead to death.
You play smart with the Messiah,
Forgetting you are His masterpiece.
Before each turn, He knows
But He still won't save you from your foolishness.
You're doomed like Esau, deranged like Cain.
Your beliefs are rooted in the promise
All sins are forgotten with confession.
And then you birth more sins,
Following the same pattern to seek forgiveness,
Making a mockery of the Most High.
Who plays with God
When your very end lies in His place
Or another place, where your sins are tested,
Reaping all that you've sown?
But it's never too late to make a turn.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
This will be your destination
If you resist giving salvation a chance.
A moment of relief from sins,
And a confession that is genuine,
Only then will you see the Messiah's favour again.
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