crooked

"You want to stop seeing me? But why?"
"If I must be honest with you, it's your teeth."
"What about them?"
"They're horribly crooked, and I just can't stand looking at them anymore."

He had inherited the crooked teeth
from his grandmother
on his mother's side.
In fact, the teeth could be traced back
to his ancestors riding over the
Atlantic Ocean, steerage, 3rd class,
in a ship called "The Hornblower,"
all the way from Ireland,
via Scotland, via a train.
The documents at Ellis Island say:
"Man, 32. Woman, 19.
Contents: One bag.
Noticeable feature: Man has horribly crooked teeth."

"Damn those teeth," he said.