Toothache

by Terrence Folz


A back tooth screams
My mouth has grown large like a snarl.
Sleep is what others do.
I am as large as the room, a
fuzzy cave.
The sickly, reassuring yellow light
from the floor lamp spreads
a haloed arc on the ceiling corner.
I watch my own fingers probe a tooth,
the way one watches
Kate Hepburn and Cary Grant spar madcap silly.
On a twelve foot silver screen.
Shadows long dead.
I recite the words to the song
'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite'
without my knowing it.
Flashes of knowledge.
And a dry hum.
There are too many things to do at 3 a.m.
Letters and loads of laundry.
Poems in your sleep.
The room is a gaping maw dosed with
benzocaine.
The beast killed once over
with bullets and propane.
Roy Scheider dead wasted in quiet victory.
Soaked in his clothes.
My eyes are second hands dragging fingers
over the next day's events.
The night grown long.
And black.
And full.
And the burning, fuzzy cave inside my mouth
has an agenda.
The blinds on my window flicker, full of dust.
-----T.Folz 2010
___________________________

Terrence Folz is in AlteredScale.com 1 and AlteredScale.com 2.


Terrence Folz is an experimental poet whose influences include poets of the Beat era such as Charles Bukowski and Delmore Schwartz, but also the dadaists/surrealists and French symbolist poets such as Baudelaire. He’s read at various poetry mics in the twin cities since moving here in 1990. A few of these include readings at Kieran’s Irish Pub, Speedboat Gallery, The Artists Quarter,The Beat Cafe, Tillie’s Bean, Dusty’s Bar, The Nicollet, and the Coffee Gallery. For a year Terrence hosted a monthly open mic at the Coffee Gallery. Mr. Folz is also a member of Vonnegut’s Bureau, a spoken word band, along with musicians Rush Merchant and Richard Griffith. Watch for them at a coffeehouse or bar near you.