Poetry | The Granule That Broke My Tooth

 The Granule That Broke My Tooth

© 2017 Vernon Miles Kerr

You,  granule that broke my tooth,

You grain of wheat the miller missed,

You minuscule monster of dental destruction,

You are more than just my own tormentor:

You are scion to granules who tormented nations,

Who were packed into granaries and held for ransom

Until the starving  heaped gold at the door,

Birthing Earthly economics.

Your progenitors rode along in the kits of conquering marauders,

Extending the murderous range of despots,

Who then flattened  forests for fields,

Replaced the sylvan for the urban,

The pastoral  for pollution,

And conscripted the peaceful hunter

To wield scythe and sword.

And you, looking so smug

Between my thumb and forefinger,

Have only broken a tooth.