gouged out of dead mouths
after dark on the battlefield

then supplied for years afterwards
by apothecaries and surgeons

as wired replacements
following extractions

those of healthy youngsters raised on farms
and newly called to the colours were best

(make faces the officers ordered
the infantrymen formed into squares

when the approaching French cavalry
bared their incisors menacingly)

one soldier whose jaw had been shot away
took months to die from starvation

– Tony Beyer