Toothpaste | Teen Ink

Toothpaste

July 12, 2014
By eleutheromania SILVER, Thief River Falls, Minnesota
eleutheromania SILVER, Thief River Falls, Minnesota
6 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Two mouths and one sink
Of course there's room enough for both
Or so you'd think

With jaws full of toothpaste
The water is calling
Beneath your face and my face
The bubbles are falling
In this tiny little space
The wait is appalling

Competition in the obligation
To allow the other freedom first
Of the soapy sensation
The foamy display only making it worse

The embarrassment of washing
Of expelling our exhaustion
Of loosing our bad breathing
All that the dreams were lost in

So I spit
Then you spit
In this little sink of white
In the porcelain frame of cleanliness
Riding our teeth of the night

Forgetting in the peppermint
The darkness caked on open bones
Releasing the sentiment
In the hungry drain of hidden unknowns

We let go of the visions
that floated in the silence
Regretting the decision
To let toothpaste show our shyness


The author's comments:
Standing open-mouthed with toothbrushes in hand, my brother and I often spar for the sink in our little apartment building. One morning after this ritual had taken place, I decided to write about it.

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