SNAKESKIN: The Poetry Webzine

Pam Ayres, Still Worrying About Her Teeth^*

De profundis, Lord, I beg
Restore each childhood ivory peg
To pearly white and free from cavities,
Unspoilt by sugar's sweet depravities,
Each sleeping nerve as yet undrilled
Each root canal as yet unfilled.
Mea culpa, Domine,
With dental hygiene gone astray
I stand before your Judgement throne,
My gums eroded to the bone,
Repentant dental dust and ashes
With scarce one tooth which truly gnashes.
But though I plead with caried grin
Please see the penitent within
Whose teeth do not, upon the whole,
Reflect the nature of her soul.

Martin Parker

Among The Wrong Ancient Mariner's other shipmates you will encounter John Betjeman in tights swinging from a trapeze, Shakespeare assembling flat-pack furniture, Burns the closet haggis hater, a seasick John Masefield, Leigh Hunt's now wokely vengeful Jenny; as well as learning Larkin's views on child carol singers and Noel Coward's on Council flats. Also revealed is additional material contributed by hitherto unsung wordsmithe including Joan Hunter-Dunn, Cleopatra's Executor, Christopher Robin, Mrs Polonius, Tennyson's garden-phobic Maud, Maya Angelou's festive turkey, Old Nokomis, Eeyore, and a cheese and pickle sandwich.

* For more excerpts see www.martinparker-verse.co.uk

Now available via Amazon at less than half its rrp of £7-99, it would be an affordable and original present for family and friends who may have grown tired of your annual offerings of socks, golf balls and pot-plants.

If you have any thoughts about this poem or this publication, Martin Parker would be pleased to hear them