A Toothache

A Toothache

...is but a dentist's unwritten poem.

Lying in the chair
listening to my dentist,
I begin to doubt
his love for poetry.

And yet he's in possession
of sufficient heart and mind
to sing and dance,
to drill and fill,
and to do whatever
his patients need done.

For me a toothache
is a long pause
between lovely verses.

For him a toothache
is a blank page,
and his drill full of ink.

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There are men so philosophical
that they can see humor in their own toothaches.
But there has never lived a man so philosophical
that he could see the toothache in his own humor.
~ H. L. Mencken

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