Friday, March 6, 2015

Toothbrush Saga



Look back and Smile on Perils Past!
(Walter Scott)

I'm an adult toothbrush, well designed of blue, white and red.
My name is “Colgate”  because I came with the paste.
Mistress uses me twice daily, her ivories and gums to clean,
 places me on a shelf over the body-waste-fixture.

It may have been January end...or perhaps  early Feb.
She flushed the toilet...its contents to rid.
Her hand caught my handle ~ I flipped to swirly waters.
She tried to catch me...but it was in vain!

Down the drain I sank...got caught in the “elbow”, wedged like a canyon rock.
“Please! Someone Rescue Me from This Terrible Ordeal.”
I fear I'm trapped tightly...either up or down, I cannot move!
The water comes and the water goes...and I'm still here,
existing in a space of rushing stagnant water...
I want to breathe air and I want to feel needed.

Mike, the Service-man from our building came
to my apartment to have a look.
He replaced a contraption in the holding tank
and hoped, with a few more flushes
my “being” would downward go.
“No Such Luck!  I Was Stuck!”
Mike told Mistress he'd return another day;
“To reach the pipe bend would be a Big Job.
Several hours it'd be to take toilet apart.
Or hire a plumber and pay three hundred bucks.”

Mistress was vary careful to cause no more disaster.
She didn't want an overflow on the washroom floor.
February passed...and so did March
and Mike? He  never did appear
(due to a job transfer)!

My life may not continue if not rescued soon:
My skin rubs the pipe sides ev'ry time the water's flushed;
I'm smelling like h__, withering and losing my slender shape.

A new Service-man came and Mistress relayed our dreadful plight.
Other emergencies of greater importance...he'd have to tend to them first!

Because my edges have become well-smoothened;
a little bit now, some movement I can sense.
Every time the water swirlingly comes,
I have high hopes I'll be rescued soon.

What is my choice?
To go through the lengthy pipe-line
or return to my worrying Mistress?
'Tis said “Good Things Come to They Who Wait!”
So, here I wait.

April, May and June are now long gone and we're into July.
I MUST Help Myself...if I possibly can!
Keep moving a bit with each water flush...
and maybe, just maybe...I'll be released.

Well, when the water slowly swirled,
I was able to float and swim to the top,
Mistress saw me...tried grabbing my bristles.
My body was so slippery, she lost her grasp.
And, once again I sank to the elbow
in very deep depression.

It was July 31...so it's Now or Never!
A New Day Tomorrow...and a New Month!
To the surface I must bust
with energy bursts determined.
“If at first, you don't succeed
you must try again...and again..”
ON AUGUST ONE...I WON!

Mistress saw me at the water's edge .
She tried to grasp, yet again I slid.
She reached past “the point of no return”
and there she felt my slippery self.
Holding tightly, she slowly inched me
past this “point” ... and from the water,
SHE LIFTED ME!
Thoroughly she rinsed me under the tap
and with paper towel, I was quickly dried.
And now the ‘body-waste-fixture’
is full-flush operational.

Mistress showed me Mint, her new “green and white”
and promised me a better life.
With a special prayer, I was sent  to “Toothbrush Heaven”.

  Colgate's Final Words were,
 “Be true to your teeth or they’ll be false to you.”

 “Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence.
The extra energy required to make another effort
or try a another approach ~  is the secret of winning.”
(Denis Waitley of the National Council of Self Esteem)

Merle Baird-Kerr...this true incident written August 3, 2014
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