Dentist Visit

My heart throbbed
in the dentist's chair
so hard I could see
the whole apparatus
vibrate each time.

This followed an
injection that
spread like spilled
ink down through
my chest.

Numbness is a
commodity, he said.
It wouldn't come,
so he slid the needle
in again.

When that didn't work
the nurse said, Nitrous
for the love of God,
we are tired of her
squealing.

And they placed
the elephant gray
mask over my nose,
and the doctor said
you may feel queasy.

That wasn't the right
word at all.
Disoriented, I said,
loopy, not queasy.

It brought my eyes
and my thoughts
inward enough
for them to finish

scraping away
the blackness.
And replace it with
a bright and plastic
white.

*From a couple years ago