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Composite Reconstruction
Ruth Towne


I view the color first, one shade of yellow,
and another, A1 then C2, neither white. 
Mine are teeth unbleached. The assistant 
explains my teeth are dry, dehydrated. 
 
The dentist promises a change in their shade
post-procedure. A question: C2–do you agree? 
An answer: yes. The dentist addresses the front 
tooth I chipped in two, to shape and make it new. 
 
Dentist and assistant pass tools above my face.
I lay flat between them but cannot translate 
these foreign objects. A board game, I receive
their action. Their tools, one planchette, slide 
 
from side to side. I am their Ouija board.
They shape questions and record the vowels 
I return until they restore my tooth. Overlarge,
imprecise, grotesque–where was nothing, 
 
now a false tooth. Only vowels, the occasional y
possess me. Multiple choice: shape here, here, 
here, or all of the above? He says shape, shaves 
is what he means. The structure looms. An answer, 
 
a guess, a yes to all. Their game resumes. A response 
essay: I request a hairstylist trim around my face, 
she asks where I like my bangs to fall, eyebrow 
or eye? I save the risk for another day. Who am I 
 
to say, yes, this is the shape I choose for my tooth? 
After two hours, the dentist reviews his work,
requests feedback. I suggest perhaps more shaping. 
He instructs me then to test it out, return for a trim
 
in about a week if I need. To choose a new tooth 
is a lesson self-taught. I concede. A bonus point: 
I imagine in place of my new tooth what the dentist 
of one hundred years ago would have reclaimed, 
 
a central incisor straight from a dead soldier’s head.
This improves my mood, though slightly. My tongue 
relearns my tooth, new and smooth. I will have always
possessed this tooth soon, but for now to speak, I lisp.

Picture
Photo by Thiebaud Faix
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