Tonight's Poet Corner: A Globule of Language Syrup

A Globule of Language Syrup
by Belinda Roddie

a penny pincher suffered from a
toothache, so he pinched snuff and
molasses to make high and sweet the
same exact sensation, but since
he was so damn thrifty, he felt
molars rot out of his skull and
he didn't quite like that, so he
got spectacularly silver
gauntlets latched to his gray gums. He
thought it was the best idea
ever, to be flashing metal
with each grin as he kissed ladies,
but they didn't like the taste and
when he drank a glass of Pinot
sorrow, he licked salt from his back
teeth and sliced his tongue right open
like a fork in a serpentine
road that winded all the way down
his raw, blood-soaked throat. Not stoked,
he choked, clavicle broke from croaking
out a panicked cymbal crash
and with a hammer, he knocked out
each fragment of stingy stubbornness,
moody brooding cooling sinful
shrapnel from his mouth and he stayed
toothless until he turned ninety-dead.