Chewing Right
Basil and tomato pesto
form
a harlequin design
on
this shopping mall pizza.
Anchovies
make a lattice
through
which I pick out rare
images
of sages and clowns
painted
with random strokes
of
an irreverent chef.
I chew carefully
on my right side.
My left is heat sensitive where
I broke a
tooth on an olive pip
and
a silly crown sits slightly squiff.
Sipping
an iced vanilla nut cafˇ
I
clutch my jaw in comic pain
because
I forgot to shift the straw
to
my left. Stars fly out from
my
contorted face and I curse
the
dentist fool who juggled
with
my teeth last autumn,
dropping
my summer molars
to the right
and the winter ones
on the left.