On Teeth

Posted on December 6, 2008
Filed Under Aphorisms | 3 Comments

Teeth are the feet of the mouth. Overlooked and unloved, they crunch through rough vegetal underbrush and wade knee-deep through vast morasses of meat. Teeth are remorseless, durable, cruel. They can grind, gnash, or bite through almost anything given long enough to chew. Yet we tend to ignore them, unless they cause us pain. Who notices their feet unless there is a stone in their shoe? At other times, we just brush them off, childishly thinking that if lost they will grow back again. But that’s not true. Missing teeth leave holes in everything we do. Without feet in our mouths, we couldn’t even eat our words.

A version of this abbreviated essay appears in the December issue of Ode.

Comments

3 Responses to “On Teeth”

  1. Leonid Sukhorukov on February 3rd, 2009 11:15 pm

    * Old age removes our teeth to protect the young. Leonid S. Sukhorukov

  2. Leonid Sukhorukov on February 3rd, 2009 11:17 pm

    * A filling is a dentist’s food supplement. Leonid S. Sukhorukov

  3. The absolute power of… beds « The English Major’s Blog on March 31st, 2009 4:21 am

    [...] I’ve been procrastinating work by reading Geary’s blog.  While I’m not moved by his current fixation on aphorisms, I like the musings on banal things, like light bulbs and teeth. [...]

Leave a Reply