Oh, I Wish I'd Looked After Me Teeth

by Pam Ayres

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth,

And spotted the perils beneath

All the toffees I chewed,

And the sweet sticky food.

Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.



I wish I'd been that much more willin'

When I had more tooth there than fillin'

To give up gobstoppers,

From respect to me choppers,

And to buy something else with me shillin'.



When I think of the lollies I licked

And the liquorice allsorts I picked,

Sherbet dabs, big and little,

All that hard peanut brittle,

My conscience gets horribly pricked.



My mother, she told me no end,

'If you got a tooth, you got a friend.'

I was young then, and careless,

My toothbrush was hairless,

I never had much time to spend.



Oh I showed them the toothpaste all right,

I flashed it about late at night,

But up-and-down brushin'

And pokin' and fussin'

Didn't seem worth the time - I could bite!



If I'd known I was paving the way

To cavities, caps and decay,

The murder of fillin's,

Injections and drillin's,

I'd have thrown all me sherbet away.