#75: A Sublingual Tooth
Poem written after singing with the faculty choir for the winter concert
Copyright 2025 by Gary Dale Burns
(TRANSCRIPTION for text-to-speech)
A Sublingual Tooth
It's crucial when singing the hymns to open outward widening the circle of shrubs, briar roses, that keep your heart hidden from the SWAT team of love. When the dentist gave you the option to pull or keep, you gave amnesty to the sublingual tooth - why take something away that speaks the freak in you? Self_love of nature's error, nub of truth imperfect no world could be designed without. For the arrest, a warrant; scribbles unpoetic, permission the outflow of personhood to another for keeping and letting go. The tooth is no inconvenience this very silent night as love's star explodes... it's nothing but water music, up there, where wiser men find their wisdom beyond teeth or nails.




"Why take something away that speaks the freak / in you" Right! Keep your freak!