Growing Teeth

That wily smiley crocodile

when basking in the tropic sun

won’t care two hoots about his teeth.

One breaks – he’ll grow another one.

The scary shark has teeth galore.

Three thousand stored inside his face.

He won’t get sore if one falls out.

A spare tooth simply takes its place.

The terrapins and turtles each

have zero teeth within their head.

They crop and bite the sea-grass with

a sharp and horny beak instead.

A human has two sets of teeth.

The first grow while we’re still quite young

yet start to fall out one by one

as adult teeth push through the gums.

But that’s the lot. We grow no more,

no matter how antique we get.

So better keep them clean and bright

unless you want a plastic set!