BETTER LIVING THROUGH POETRY

some years ago when I was editing This Is
Important I published a poem by Todd
Moore where he talked about his father
pulling out his own tooth with a pair of pliers
and then swishing some whiskey around in
his mouth and packing the hole with cotton
well yesterday a friend came over with a half
G of Black Velvet complaining about a back
tooth that had been killing him for awhile now
so we drink a little bit and then he says pull
out my tooth man I can't take it no more and
I remember Moore's poem and go out to the
tool box in my truck and get a pair of needle
nose Vise-Grips and go back into the house
where we have a few more shots before I
clamp down on that sucker and pop it out
with one hard yank like some rotten stinking
vegetable so then he spits a little blood into a
bowl when my wife brings over the cotton and
he says thanks a lot bro the fucking dentist
wanted to charge me $275 hey it's not a
problem I tell him just better living through
poetry and we all laugh and keep on drinking