Elegy for the Fourth Wisdom Tooth that Never Grew In

 

I

Here, this is the dentist chair. Not quite operating
table, not quite lazy boy. Here is where IV
drips honey into dreamless sleeps & where the surgeon
will teach you how to pronounce maxillofacial. I have not reached

II

the age of wisdom, but that does not mean I don’t deserve
procedure. I will swallow whole all my anxieties and digest
them into nerve & bone and REM. I’m a good boy

III

& if you say addict I’ll probably cry. I’m a good
boy & I know how to swallow gauze like a man.

 

IIII

Here, this is the straw that you may not sip
from. Dry sockets only come for boys who stain
their teeth with coffee & cigarettes & soup. I’m a timer

 

IIII

set for the hour that I can take just one more Vicodin.

 

Joseph Felkers is a junior at Catholic Central High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  His work appears or is forthcoming in SOFTBLOW, decomP magazinE, Rust + Moth, and Superstition Review among others.  He is a genre editor for Polyphony H.S., a reader and past-mentee with The Adroit Journal, and an ice cream connoisseur at his local parlor.