The Lament of A Toothless Woman

“Oh how I wish I was young again and had all of my teeth.”  Ms. Corbin was present as usual at the annual Christmas dinner.  She always wondered why she attended for she never really had a good time.  She looked around at the other guests.  They all seem to be enjoying themselves but there she was sitting in a corner all by herself.

She never enjoyed herself because she had no teeth.  By the time she was forty years she had a toothless smile.  These days she seldom smiled for she was embarrassed because of her empty mouth.  She had few friends and in any case she preferred to be left alone.

There she was with all kinds of appetizing foods to eat but she had to pass them by.  She could not eat the ham, the turkey, the pork or even the roast.  She had no teeth. How she wished she had taken greater care of her teeth as a youth!  She had been warned by her parents and her teachers too, but she paid no heed.

At age forty, she could not speak properly.  Often she wondered, “How am I going to make friends when I can’t even speak properly?”  That was not all.  Since she had lost all of her teeth her face was now distorted and her mouth appeared to be mashed down.  One could just imagine how Ms. Corbin felt.  No wonder she kept to herself.  Oh, how she wished she had taken greater care of her teeth!

Stewart Russell © 1998