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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

THE DENTIST

by Rochelle Ratner


A dentist from East Sussex has been erased from the Dentists Register after he pulled out an 87-year-old grandmother's teeth without anaesthetic "to teach her a lesson."
--BBC News, January 12, 2007.


The mother clips this article from the paper and has it blown up
and frames it in a bright pink frame and puts it on the wall in her
younger daughter's room. And she says this is what happens to
little girls who fake sore throats when they're supposed to go to the
dentist, who rest their tongues on their braces and break them then
tell the dentist to go ahead and pull them off, they don't care if
their teeth are straight or not and they never want to get married.
But the little girl, ten and small for her age, knows this is one more
fairy tale. From the Bright Pink Fairy Book, probably.


Rochelle Ratner's latest poetry books include Balancing Acts (Marsh Hawk Press, 2006), Beggars at the Wall (Ikon, 2006) and House and Home (Marsh Hawk Press, 2003). She is the author of fifteen previous poetry collections and two novels (Bobby’s Girl and The Lion’s Share) both published by Coffee House Press). More information and links to her writing on the Internet can be found on her homepage.