Tooth for Teeter-Totters

I apologize for the crappy poems of late.

I write them on the fly – as I hope you are all aware – and so they are often not good. I read them back usually once after typing them, and then again the next day. Sometimes there is a gem, but usually they suck.

I have been writing some prose lately. I think it is good. It is semi-autobiographical. I write short little chapters, never more than half a page, and never more than one a day, in an attempt to keep it fresh. I think it might be the start of a second book. Maybe when I am farther along, I'll put a couple chapters up here to get your feedback.

For today I will give it another try:

Forgive me, dentist, for I have sinned.

my floss has remained on the shelf

smelling like old candy stuck between my teeth

because I didn't use it to remove the old candy

you get the drift.

Now I have maintained a religious twice-daily

brushing schedule, but of course, that doesn't

take care of the candy between

And somehow my smoking brother

can get away with brushing twice weekly

and you let him off without ticket or warning

and even his wife barely raises a fuss.

Can these unjust hygenic procedures

continue without moral judgements

on my faith in science and medicine and laughing gas

those wisdom teeth can stay in, you say?

As some sociologist once said,

"all medical designations of deviance

are influenced significantly by the moral

order of society and thus cannot be considered

morally neutral."

well,

I'd say,

Ph.Ds don't mean a pile of quarters when the tooth fairy comes for ya.

Colin and YOU Co.