Open wide
This will pinch
And then
Your jaw
Will tingle and get numb
As well as your lower lip
And possibly your tongue
This doesn’t happen with the upper teeth.
I’ll be back in a few minutes.
The drill makes a high-pitched whine from the room to my left.
I watch the Pet Channel on the TV.
She returns and instructs me,
Now turn to your right
Close your glottis
Suction please
She uses the ultrasonic scaler
Wow, I’m getting a shower too.
Now, isn’t that efficient?
11/16/25 Cornelia DeDona
Published by
C. S. De Dona
Author, Poet, Photographer, domestic violence survivor, and naturalized immigrant, Cornelia is currently an Arts and Letters member of The Southwest Florida Branch of The National League Of American Pen Women.
Cornelia lived in Kaneohe, Hawaii, for thirty-six years. Also, seven years in the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York. She now resides in North Fort Myers, Florida.
Her poems and photography are published in print, online, and in Rain Bird, a literary and art journal of the University of Hawaii's Windward Community College (2008-2013).
In 2013, Cornelia received Rain Bird's Kolokolea Poetry Prize for her poem, "Speaking French."
In 2016, her chapbook "Hawaiian Time," entered in the National League of American Pen Women's Vinnie Ream contest, was awarded third place in their inaugural multi-discipline category.
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