Beautifully rendered, Max and Sheila's suggestions cut to the chase well
too.
Bill
On Wednesday, October 7, 2015, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I left my tooth,
> or most of it,
> in Chinatown,
> where a chook-bone
> shocked and broke it.
>
> Like chook-bones
> tooth fragments
> are chomped on
> and - preferably -
> not swallowed.
>
> In this case, less tooth
> joined the bone pile
> on the side of my plate
> than my tongue sensed
> I’d lost from my mouth.
>
> ‘Plenty of teeth left!’
> I grimace at the wife.
> She blenches and flinches,
> wields defensively
> her clenched chopsticks.
>
> It’s happened to her,
> more than once - and at
> the time was eating out.
> This tooth I've lost,
> picked out by fate
>
> in Seattle’s Chinatown
> this summer night.
> My smile’s no worse
> than it ever was - a smile
> these days you'll seldom see.
>
> But I smile inwardly.
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