Toothpaste

Toothpaste
by Cody Clarke

They discontinued my favorite toothpaste
and I found out months after the fact

Everything happens like this
Your favorite objects die just like your favorite people do

Silently and far away

taking a slow and broken train
cross country
to tell you

Arriving as casual words from the TV or a friend
so casual they're just fingertips tapping your shoulder
startling you with their lightness

As much as we'd like to believe we're impervious
and that our own deaths won't go down this way

there are people who love you
more than you will ever know
that won't find out for ages

Wolves

Wolves
by Cody Clarke

The moon is full and baring down on me
though I can't see it

The clouds are thick as porridge
protecting me as best they can
but I still feel the moon like a magnet
repelling me into the dirt

I can feel the hate and disappointment in my
sinuses and forehead
like my third eye is rotting

and all my work
everything I've done either creatively or for money
is droplets of blood on toilet paper

I wish these feelings were memories
and not my current state of mind

I'm not writing this from the past
and I'm certainly not writing it from the future

I'm writing this in the ever-changing present
waiting the eternity between this night
and tomorrow morning
when I'll feel a little better

and put my nose to the grindstone
and serve the universe amidst wolves

Even in prison there are still wolves
and even in solitary confinement there are still wolves

so you might as well let them have at you some nights

States

States
by Cody Clarke

and here we are
naked
embracing

with so much water in us
flowing through our bodies

and sapling hairs dot our skin completely

our heads like grand ancient trees

the hot air from our lungs
nurturing our whole landscape
as our breath wisps down it

and the roads of our hand prints
and the caverns of our crevasses

we're states
united

we're only two strong
but we're enough for a country

and the ideals
the freedom of speech we have

the respect
the liberty
and the happiness

we're a utopia
and the only one possible

the united states started with so much
and now it's just a crib death

while love is old as sin
and will be here forever
god bless us all