Toothpaste smile

Toothpaste smile

It was a brown liquor day

It always was

But even more so when words

Were hard to come by.

He sat in the corner

On a barstool nursing a dirty glass

Tipping it, turning it upside down

Staring into the amber

Of the freshly poured.

He was struggling,

I knew his story

Even if he had forgotten what it was.

I was struggling too

But didn’t want to push too hard

I was afraid I might close the door

Squeeze the life out of myself

I need the words to flow

I’m not a tube of toothpaste.

‘Do you remember Hexachlorophene?”

He nodded.

“Yes, the toothpaste with the stripes.

I don’t think they sell it now.”

No, they don’t but do you know why?

“I guess because it stopped selling.”

“No, because the damned stuff was toxic

It impacted the immune system

Had a number of side effects which were

Pretty damned serious.

They banned it in soaps and such

Even before they banned it in toothpaste.”

“You’re kidding, they allowed you to put it

In your mouth but banned it from your skin?”

“Yeh, how crazy is that?”

“Pretty damned crazy if you ask me

But then what do I know

I can’t even write a few lines

For a poetry journal.”

“Me neither but you know what?”

“What.”

“I don’t care, because one day

They’re gonna realise poetry journals

Are bad for your health

And I’ll be damned if they don’t get banned.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Nope, you would think they would learn.”

“Learn what?”

“A catchy commercial will sell you

A few tubes of toothpaste

But in the end

What you really need is a good product

To bring a lasting smile to the face

Of the public.”

“You sayin’ I can’t write?”

“Nope, what I’m sayin’ is don’t push the river

You ain’t never gonna

Beat the tide.

You have to go with the flow,

Ride the wave

There ain’t nothing but pain

If you try too hard.

Wait for the tide to turn

As it surely will

And then you can ride it all the way

Upstream

Like the Severn Bore.”

“Yeh, I’ve seen that on the news

Stupid dudes riding the wave

So far up the river

They have a five-mile hike back to their cars.

A dumb self-satisfied smile

Plastered all over their faces.”

“Yep, thank god for toothpaste.”

“And science.”

“Yes, proper science,

Not just a man in a white coat.”