The Drooling Class

 The call of the wild, then the pull of the tooth.

 Thus, tooth #12 was extracted yesterday by an oral surgeon on Sutter St. Accordingly, my mouth is a little wobbly today, as if after a lifetime of chewing I now must select a new way of being in the world, A, B, or C, where A=X, B=Y, and C=toothlessness.

 Newly toothless, I follow the trail of broken glass and blood dripping from the left side of my mouth, advised by the oral surgeon to only eat soft foods from now on and only on the right side for at least 6 months, keeping my mouth just open enough for at least a little air to enter and closed just enough for no illegal immigrant to enter without proper identification.

I’ll try to make my practice simple. The goal now is to sit quietly in a Callan chair while looking out of the big picture window, holding hands with inner peace.

Sitting quietly, it seems I’ve come to depend on the regularity of time, that time should be the same time all the time, that the sun would rise and the sun go down at the same time. Is this an unreasonable expectation? And where is my notebook? I know I’ve lost it, and that what I’ve lost is right where I’ve lost it! I must simplify my life. Otherwise, all this information, all these messages my brain is receiving from my missing tooth, might become confused and then backfire on me in a messy exhibition of spittle and burps.

I’ve arrived at the Age of Anxious Vulnerability where questions only multiply, diminishing, it seems, a senior citizen’s ability to answer.

 I turn the tv on so that it may enjoy my company. On screen the US Capitol is turning a weird shade of orange. I do wonder—was the Jan. 6 insurrection priapic? So much raw energy has been put into this investigation, raising all sorts of questions. I’m not sure where I come down on it all; I’m neither For nor Against. Is it simply a matter of consensual sexual/political activity between two or more groups of people who feel strongly about one another, or random acts of individual disorganized violence?

Tv off, tooth pulled successfully! I’ll keep the tooth in a special jar in case it improves with age, hoping it hasn’t bitten off more metaphors than it could chew.