Benjamin James Lancaster

                        “this won’t take long…”

 

but I wanted it to, I fought

to keep open my eyes and thought

of Gorey scenes and Escher dreams

to play in as I slept.

my efforts, though, were all in vain.

his medicine soon won my brain

and in that time stirred not my mind – 

          I was as good as dead.

 

                        “that’s all of them…”

 

when I awoke, my head felt light.

above me loomed his coat of white.

I tried to move but I was glued

            down firmly where I sat.

I thought of all he’d cut from me

and found I missed them terribly,

so with a grin I asked of him

            to kindly give them back.

 

            “they’ve been disposed of…”

 

damn him, this man of medicine!

I’d have made a rattle of them

so my baby boy’s favourite toy

            would be his father’s teeth.

but all these dreams within my mind

are surgically removed in time;

my heart lies bare in the holes where

            wisdom and wonder meet.