I lost a tooth today
a new empty space on the right
joining on the left the older empty
spaces of three. On this day too
John McCain was buried
Trump made a deal with Mexico
excluded Canada at the table
while I, I’ve lost a tooth today.
A dentist pried poked drilled
twisted yanked and swore
while I retreated in the chair.
For a tooth so full of decay
it certainly protested there.
What do X-rays know anyhow?
Sometimes a shadow is only a shadow
but I lost a tooth today.
Somewhere at this very moment
a village eats bowls of rice.
Somewhere a woman engraves
on her shoulder a rose tattoo for a man.
Somewhere a baby boy bathes
in a kitchen sink or sponging from a pail,
a soldier raises a rifle in battle bliss,
and I, I lost a tooth today.
Significant to me, my mouth, alone.
Or, in this spiraling universe
in which we live,
perhaps thousands of others around
the globe sit in dental offices,
perhaps thousands of others
they too have lost a tooth today.
What if we are infinitely connected?
I wish you well, all peoples of the earth.
I wish you peace in your back yards
I wish you happiness at your kitchen tables
I wish you prosperity with the bills in your pockets
And may you all lie in your caskets
With all your teeth intact.
(photo from Pixabay)
Susan Lynn Zenker 