TOOTH

TOOTH
(consideration for a new year)

A tooth for a tooth, or a ticket for the bus,
The clock ticks, as it meters time
Potential by fractions is lost to indecision
Jim Morison said...
Well that's not the point
20 years today, since a precious reprieve...
I have lived... I Live! Something must always die
The second 'law' of thermodynamics is not always implied but inertia demands a  cost
Loss is not negotiable, death inevitable, debts - ultimately - payable

Life change must claim a fee a token, or ticket... Yesterday I gave a tooth
Skillfully Wrenched from my aching jaw, in three pieces.
On this auspicious anniversary, and end to an end and a tooth only to pay
Lightning doesn't always strike no matter what you pray
Was the price higher than I thought?
An old champion, my hero, tripped along the way before he'd reached his final goal

In our original glory, was there ever anything so precious as a good set of teeth?
I concede this bad tooth a toll
I trade another crevice a space in my jaw for, one more chapter in patched up shoes 
Thoughts skip to friends who never made it, They departed with all their mouths in tact,
Their future was set they couldn't change it, life's sweet breath squandered and wasted
Let the tooth burn! As fuel for this change in direction
Leave the ashes to the wind

When fate looks in this mouth full of empty spaces, It will find there within
Enough teeth remain to chew and bite and grin
Till my last jagged peg and I've breath left to shout
The marrow will be sucked before I am out!