Tooth Fairies & Dental Dybbuks

Before

In the occluded moment – now and here –
I do not know a thing, for sure, beyond
the temperature of my apartment’s atmosphere
(a little cool). I’ll dare, however, to be fool
enough to say that (in cahoots with
periodontic gurus at the dental school
of NYU) I am projecting an expected incident

and outcome: the enaction of a plan to
bring about extraction of two teeth from me
this afternoon; and that when I’ve come
back to you I will have undergone whatever
wrench and torsion will have been required
to effect these acts. All of this, of course,
supposed: we’re far from facts. But

with the expectation of these stark sharp
brightnesses in place – tooth fairies,
like fireflies, all captured in the mind’s
tight jar – I think it safe to say I won’t go
irremediably far past the enjoyment of
the vast, continued and availing happiness
of unimpededly revolving ‘round our star.

After

How the dimpled dental dybbuks laugh!
Once again there is no past and though
somewhere there may be sutures, there
is equally no future. High priestesses of all
the oral mysteries: invite the gleeful poet,
now, tonight to celebrate in your strange
apse and chancel. Appointment cancelled.


.