The dentist chair...

Neil Diamond and The Dentist

I went to the dentist
and took both my boys.
Jeremy "babysat" Jacob
at the foot of my dentist chair.

The girl said,
"would you like to listen
to some music with the headphones?"
Well, sure. What a nice idea.
I picked Neil Diamond
and tapped my foot to the beat
while they worked on my teeth.

Months later...
I went again to the dentist
without my boys;
mostly because Jacob was dead.
But I didn't remember.

The girl said, "would you like some music?"
Well, sure. Neil Diamond would be nice.
Something hit be hard
right between the eyes
and in the very pit of my stomach,
at the first sounds of the tune.

I ripped off the headphones -
startled at the painful shock.
And then I remembered.

I began to cry and couldn't stop.
I tried to explain,
but they didn't understand
and hurried through.

The dentist and the girl
kept looking at each other
not knowing what to do
about my silent tears.

There was no reasoning
or rationalizing the tears away.
I'd been hit in the heart
totally unprepared
while in the dentist chair by Neil Diamond.

The receptionist asked
if the dentist had hurt me.
I said no, and cried some more.
Then I drove toward home
still unable to stop the tears,
and stopped at the dam in the river.

It was the closet
I'd come yet to the river,
and I stood there over the dam
reflecting on my presence there.
For a long time I stayed -
the mist joining the tears
until there was nothing left to feel.

My heart was left somewhere
between the dentist's chair
and the waterfalls -
cause I never want to be hit like that again.
.