{"id":8535,"date":"2025-06-27T23:24:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T03:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/?p=8535"},"modified":"2025-06-28T20:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T00:32:20","slug":"broken-teeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/?p=8535","title":{"rendered":"Broken Teeth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Broken Teeth<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Perched high on a solitary hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overlooking a wide and snakey river<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stood a row of broken teeth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grinning no longer,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each one a reminder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of short and brutal lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They spoke of those who came<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To tame and till these fertile fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They named their towns<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After those they left behind,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paisley, Dundalk, Dunkeld, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inverhuron, Lorne, Kincardine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The familiar ring to the names<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reminders of why they left<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And why they came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Years of long neglect,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rage of summer storms<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And wintery frozen gales<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had turned those white markers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To mostly broken sentinels<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No longer at attention<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But lying on the ground<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if their owners had fallen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I first sought to find<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The source of those jagged stones,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came upon a scene of chaos<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That once had been ordered rows<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of granite guardians<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Standing at attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now they lay like fallen soldiers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left on the field to die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The irony was not lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I traced the names and dates<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worn thin and nearly erased<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began to think of their stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My fingers followed faint letters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That marked tragically brief lives,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The space between birth and death<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Measured often in months or days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many children <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newly birthed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then just as newly laid to rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surnames repeated <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With scarcely a season between<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gave witness to the ravages <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of unchecked disease<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And bitter winters following failed crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I began to imagine life that grew<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the river\u2019s far side,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where roots finally took hold<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To fulfill the dream <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And inherit the promise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sailed across the sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They still carried their dead <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the muddy river,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climbed the hill<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To plant their sorrowful burdens<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among those who once sailed with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Then on white marble rune-stones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They etched brief stories,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That named the names<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And marked the dates,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sent prayers heavenward <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And add new teeth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To rise and fall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all the rest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Broken Teeth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Click here to return Home<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Broken Teeth Perched high on a solitary hill Overlooking a wide and snakey river Stood a row of broken teeth Grinning no longer, Each one a reminder Of short and brutal lives. They spoke of those who came To tame and till these fertile fields. They named their towns After those they left behind, Paisley, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213552057,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38787,9802],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-poetry","category-my-work"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdzkeJ-2dF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/213552057"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8535"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8587,"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535\/revisions\/8587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pallimpsest.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}