Wondering What They Are Up To

in the Middle of the Night

by Mario Milosevic

I guess I can accept the idea

that a fairy takes your baby teeth

and leaves you some coins

as fair trade.

But what I want to know

is what does she do with those teeth?

Does she make jewelry from them?

Macabre earrings, say, or lumpy necklaces

which she then sells at Saturday Market?

Or does she crush them

into a fine calcium powder

to help push away

the pixie version of osteoporosis?

Or maybe she fashions tiny dice

from all those canines and bicuspids

to use on casino night at the enchanted meadow.

This whole disturbing business

of trafficking in body parts,

well, it just troubles me a little,

thinking how the young

are made unwitting partners

to strange practices

they are not equipped to understand.