Because Nosipho often found a set
of false teeth in a glass by the couple's bed,
she had believed for many years, she said,
that whites don't have real teeth -- she'd never met
one that did not arouse the thought that soon
a tooth, or maybe worse, would pop right out
and hit her in the face. She feared, no doubt,
that all their parts were loose. That afternoon
she saw the man lift up his hair -- she screamed
and fainted on the spot. Of course, they thought
it was a native thing -- they had been taught
that blacks don't make much sense. They never dreamed
that her reaction to their flaws revealed
that fictions cannot always stay concealed.