The tooth

His Whole Tooth

I felt the fiver rustle between thumb and forefinger

As I padded into your bedroom

Preparing to make the switch

A note would be easy to slide across the sheet

Want a smooth operation 

if this to be my last tooth-based transaction

I could picture the paper under the pillow

You always were a good sleeper

Mum is out with the girls

So I’m standing in for the stand in tooth fairy

Swaying in the shadows

The bathroom light is on of course

I wait to see if you are going to stir

Then I slide my hand underneath

Below the soft rock I crawled from under

Your head rests on a rock for a pillow

As you dive into you dreams

Deep inside an octopuses garden

You are sleeping like a wreck

On bottom bunk submerged in inky darkness.

But I can’t find the tooth

My hand scuttles like a skittish crustacean

Fleeing a divers torch light

Then there it is glinting

The jewel stashed in a hole in the reef

I slide the note along the silky sand

Five pounds seems a lot to pay

But it could be the last time

Mum is out on the town with the tooth fairy

Having a pre-Christmas drink

Mum always goes out with her friends

more than you dad

But I’ve got a fiver that says she’ll be home tipsy

And now I have your molar

So delicate in the hollow of my palm

I steal out of your room

Satisfied I’ve made a good deal

Then back downstairs to find the tin

Where I keep my memory sticks

I prize open the lid

And release the chewing gum sized enamel drop

Onto the bottom with a little rattle

It will stay here until I’m old and grey

The last of your milk teeth

I squeeze the lid back on

And place the tin back by my bedside

In the morning you will be five pounds richer

And I will be non the wiser

Mum will soon to be home

From her night out on the tiles

I want to be sleeping when she comes in

Or at least pretending to be