Russell Edson
The Moonlighters
An artist, who moonlights as a dentist, squeezes some cobalt blue on
his toothbrush and begins to brush his teeth.
But then sees a man in his bathroom mirror with a mouth full of blue
teeth.
How is that, he thinks, when only moments ago they were as yellow as
the harvest moon . . . ?
Because a dentist who acts as his own dentist has a fool for a
dentist, he telephones another dentist (who, incidentally,
moonlights as an artist), and says, I was brushing my teeth when I
noticed they began to look kind of blue—No, no, not sad, just blue,
as in, blue paint. . . .
The other dentist, who moonlights as an artist, replies, It sounds
like you’re in your blue period, it’s that time of the month. Try
some titanium white with a turpentine mouthwash. . . .