Magazines courting raised circulation
    Decked with models they think most appealing
Merely generate mild irritation
    When it’s clear what it is they’re revealing.

Whether languorous, muscular, ditzy,
     Strong and silent, demure, sentimental,
Or suggestive, i.e. bum ‘n’ titsy,
     They display far too much that is dental.

Why this boom in bared teeth, all Macleany?
     Why the photo-shopped grins that afflict us?
Why must faces, both time-touched and teeny,
      Get reduced to a glistening rictus?

Can it be that the image-controllers
     Assume none of us buy printed paper
Without first seeing canines and molars
     Being flashed by some gloss-coated gaper?

On a panel the world flocks to honour,
     Who charms with her tight-lipped composure?
Yes, it’s L. da V.’s Louvre-hung donna −
     Those cover-mouths too deserve closure.

*****

Jerome Betts writes: “I can’t remember whether anything particular sparked off this slowly evolving piece apart from my becoming increasingly aware of the displays of dazzling female dentition on consumer magazine covers, sometimes a dozen or so different titles in a row to bizarre effect. My impression was that the apparently mandatory flashing smile became the focus, drawing the attention away from the rest of the face.”

Jerome Betts lives in Devon, England, where he edits the quarterly Lighten Up Online. Pushcart-nominated twice, his verse has appeared in a wide variety of UK publications and in anthologies such as Love Affairs At The Villa Nelle, Limerick Nation, The Potcake Chapbooks 1, 2 and 12, and Beth Houston’s three Extreme collections. British, European, and North American web venues include Amsterdam Quarterly, Better Than Starbucks, Light, The Asses of Parnassus, The Hypertexts, The New Verse News, and  Snakeskin (where this poem was first published).

Photo: “Big Beautiful Smile 4” by Smiles7676 is marked with CC0 1.0.