I Only Cried Six Times Today (and it's already 3pm!)

[geminiwench]

After they pulled all those front teeth,
and sewed me all up
I was sent home with a denture
that was too tight and wouldn't fit on a good day,
let alone my bloody stitched and swollen mouth.

My surgery was a week ago today,
and my gums have mostly healed
and we got my new denture to fit.

It tongue-ties me.
For every tooths-worth of teeth they take,
they need 3-teeth's-worth mass of plastic to make,
a denture to fake
your smile.

Ok, not YOUR smile...
but, *A* smile,
at least.

My lips framing
a whole new pre-fabricated
and perfectly average picture in there.

Hotel art... of the mouth.

Affordable and... looks like it.

I guess anything looks better than the art-theft
scene of the crime
that greets me
au naturel
right now.



Anyways,
it's been a month or more of crying and sighing
all the live-long day
navigating the real-life nightmares
as my teeth break out of my head,
one-by-one
like determined prisoners
escaping Alcatraz
by Any Means Necessary.

I try to guard the few pearly inmates left
and keep the peace,
but our justice system is designed to punish
rather than discipline,
and my mouth has congenitally foundational flaws
that preregistered me for a life of dental problems and pain,
and our healthcare system believes
in capitalistic for-profit role-modeling
where health is a privilege
and dental work an expensive luxury,
like
so....
.... it just is what it is,
and it ain't pretty
but it is
reality
so.... I'm trying to come to terms with it.

Well,
I'm healing at least.

That's good news.

I'm feeling better, too.

That's also good news.