Sonnenizio on Teeth

"Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws..."
                             ~ Sonnet 19, William Shakespeare



Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws
if you can, or the equally fierce teeth from geese.

Perishing at sea, you'd be identified by your teeth
if your bones were gathered. An eyetooth jutting out

reminds you: there's a garden of teeth fixed in statues' 
mouths, in Finland. Each toothy grin is a pearled set

of dentures, molded from human mouths. They gape 
and pose and writhe amid the sawtoothed bramble,
 
or circle under trees hung with tooth-shaped pennants. 
Their teeth shine in the evening light. They're slightly

menacing, but also a bit familiar: toothed expressions
you yourself might make, flossing your teeth in front  

of the bathroom mirror. You used to have a rootless tooth, 
chip of bone above your incisors. Gone, ghost of a tooth now.