Things you have to do
To your body stay true.
Diet, exercise, apothecary
Doctors, tests, insurance mandatory.
Youth ground away
A little more each day
But forget counsel’s irredentist
I still have to go to the dentist.
Ever since battles malignant
Naked, poked – most indignant
Chattering angst free floats
Whenever I spy a lab coat.
Lysol scented parchment
Sterile, cold compartments
Periodicals, out of date,
Too much for my soul to take.
But this is just a cleaning
Make my teeth gleaming.
Nothing to worry about
But I still have my doubts.
Terror, I know, can burst from the blue
On a fine day, to take all from you.
Once hit with such pain
You dread its return again.
This is the specter
My mind does it hector
Invulnerability, I now understand
A foundation built on sand.
“Are you okay?” the dentist asks
Tool in hand to remove plaques
Concern furrowing brow
Elsewhere I’d rather be now.
Last time I was here
Day before father’s soul dear
Did death did take
My tooth still aching at his wake.
A bad association, perhaps
Neuroses does the mind trap
Setting me a bother
Even when one thing
Doesn’t have to do with the other.
Open mouthed, heart thumping
Metallic scrapes, irrigation pumping
Whirring pastes, floss, then spit
Too long do I sit.
Then lead aproned, X-Ray
After sugary sins washed away
Tounge, gums, examined
Hoping nothing bad’s happened.
“All’s well.” comes the reprieve
Ministered amnesty and relief,
Then I get a toothbrush
And out the door I rush.
Pardoned, into the morn I go
Enamel fortified, into traffic’s flow
Procrastinated task done
Yet more skirmishes to be won.
To gym I head to iron sinews taut
Not because I want to, but ought.
To stay on this firmament
Despites laziness’ candied endearments.
Time marches on, our bodies grist
“Til we vanish into Empyrean mists
But to your body you must be true
Until slip away you do.
