The dentist interns looked quite bored
As the patient’s mouth was being duly gored.
Some new set up of a toothy kind,
Was surely taxing the senior fellow’s mind.
The mouth was small the man so big,
The assistant wore a skewered wig.
The teevee crew plodded along
They were to shoot the creation of false teeth strong.
The blood was drawn so red, so dear,
T’was not the cost that hurt, but the fear.
The victim who was in great pain that day,
Would gladly have chewed those fingers away
But alas how the almighty strives,
On poor man’s sorrows he surely thrives.
The mouth bereft of all thirty odd teeth,
Could hardly argue with the fingers beneath
He called himself a thousand fools
For falling prey to modern schools,
That offered him his new dentures free
If he would pose for history.
There he was in a soup of his own making,
His thirst for fame slowly slaking
As with each prick and neat little stitch
He counted the notes that would make him rich.
And then it was he saw himself on the TV screen
The sweat on his brow, the silvery sheen
And the bloody mess under his nose.
Oh! God, was ever vanity an inglorious sin?
Someone save me from this frenetic jinn
And yelling, he swung out of the dentist’s chair.
And scampered away like a frightened hare
Running to the safety of his home so dear
Where, assembled were his family, far and near.
They were watching the program on the silver screen
Of dental history being worked on their very own kin.
Usha Chandrasekharan: She is a believer in the power of the universe, in the power of positive energy, in the power of words, in the power of good intentions. She has two children both of good literary prowess, both creative in their own way.