Shark Teeth

He wears a woven black leather necklace

With several rows of 

Sun-bleached, knife-sharp

White shark teeth

Attached with small silver rings.

They look pretty

Against his bronzed

Toned breastplate.

Talking to him

I learned that he buys

Sharks’ teeth 

“By the pound”

And grinds them up like 

Coffee beans

Adding them to his protein shake

Every morning.

He told me 

He procures exotic gelatin capsules

Of finely powdered

Great Hammerhead Sharks’ porcelain enamel

From the Chinese black market

Where they claim

The charms of masculine sexual virility

Along with the benefits of a prolonged, healthy life

And the added advantage

Of being aggressive

In prosperous business opportunities.

This all may very well be true.

But as sharks die in their own blood

In their natural waters

Giving up their fins

Flesh and teeth

I think of the over-population

Of sharks on land.

Aggressive

And simple minded.

No pills or tinctures.

No amulets.

Smelling blood

And going in for the kill

With no concience at all.

Natural predators

Absent

Of the bare human concience.

I told him

What he was doing

Wasn’t necessary

At all.

“You’re either born a shark

Or not.”

“Shark food.”

As far as the male virility

I told him

He was on his own.

But I did end our conversation with

“Swim before you get eaten.”