Tuesday, February 22, 2011

This Is Going to Hurt Just a Little Bit

THIS IS GOING TO HURT JUST A LITTLE BIT - by Ogden Nash 

One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with my mouth wide open.
    And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopan.
    Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
    But the one that is both is dental.
    It is hard to be self possessed
    With your jaw digging into your chest,
    so hard to retain calm
    When your fingernails are making serious alterations in your life line or love line 
    or some other important line in your palm,
    So hard to give your ususal cheerful effect of benignity
    When you know your position is one of the two or three in life most lacking in dignity
    And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on
    And it is cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and drills and steam rollers 
    and there isn't a nerve on your head that aren't being irked on.
    Oh some people are unfortunate to be worked on by thumbs,
    And others have things done to their gums,
    And your teeth are supposed to being polished
    But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.
    And the circumstances that adds to your terror
    Is that it's all done with a mirror,
    Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say, only they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,
    But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one hand and mirror in the other he won't get mixed up, the way you do when try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, 
    and forget that left is right and vice versa
    And then at last he says, That will be all, 
    but it isn't because he then coats your mouth from cellar to roof
    With something I suspect is generally used to put shine a horse's hoof,
    And you totter to your feet and think, Well it's over now and after all it was only this once,
    And he says come back in three monce.
    And this O Fate, is I think the most vicious that thou ever sentest,
    That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good condition
    When the chief reason he wants his teeth to be in good condition
     is so that he won't have to go the dentist.

For all that you ever wanted to say about dentists, he has said it all. 
I have to visit mine tomorrow. Need I say more?

This is a poem I studied in school, and you guessed it, fell in love immediately. I have bad teeth genes, and hence the fox-trot with the dentists started real young. As if that wasn't enough, I have had my share of bad dentists, and good escapes. 

Wish me luck, will you. 

    4 comments:

    Jzt 4 me... said...

    Hehe...My teeth too are in too much in love with Dentists I suppose...I find myself entering a Dentist's Den just to prove this love every now and then...But then, for some time now, I have been too adamant to do that...Just to save my very few teeth...afterall, how can I give them all off to them and still pay the Dentist...Usually, If u give something, u get paid...this is one place where u have to give ur precious teeth and still pay for it...grrr...

    Rohini Prasanth said...

    hey J.. so far I have managed to escape. but now my whole mouth is in a bad shape - or so they say. so, i guess its inevitable now :(
    how is your health now?I hope everything turns out ok for you.

    caterpillar said...

    I remember studying this in school too...and I have to say, if there's one thing I hate, it's a trip to the dentist's....ugggh.....good luck.

    Rohini Prasanth said...

    hello caterpillar! welcome to my blog. thanks for the luck - I am going to need it the whole of next month - tons of appointments scheduled. :(

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