Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Tooth Fairy


You may smile at me,
but behind those lips are teeth bared,
a wolf in sheep’s clothing
waiting to sink its canines
into my flesh.

Don’t think for one second
that your demeanor —
climate-controlled to emptiness along
with your “great morning” greetings —
disguises your forked tongue.

I see who you are beneath the surface
despite that Optimist’s Creed
and those clichéd scriptures
sitting on your office bookshelves:
you’re a ladder-climber.

Someone who will step on toes
and crush heads with (high) heels
in order to (circum)navigate past that
imaginary glass ceiling
hanging over your head.

That mirrored glass ceiling haunts you
like a wraith, revealing your true colors;
a black cloud that’s waiting to burst and
reign a torrential downpour of broken dreams
from those that you’ve shattered
along your yellow-brick’d road,

A second-rate masonry job with
chipped stones,
like teeth with cigarette stains
that “cover up” the cancer in your lungs,
betrayed by halitosis and hacking coughs,
but still eating away at the very breath of life
you could steward for the good of others
if you would but embrace the person
you claim to be.

And though it may be a thorn in my flesh
to have you dig your spurs in my flank
as you ride me into the ground
like a sadistic rodeo clown,
I will show you compassion because,
though it’s a weakness my enemies do not share…

…it’s what separates me from them
and makes me my Father’s son.