Full Tubes of Toothpaste

I’m going to tell you

I’ve never been in any kind of

Set-up

That was that nice

This was—

I mean, this was nice

You’d use a roll of toilet paper

Walk out of the bathroom

Go back in a minute later

And there’s a brand new roll

They never even let it get down

To half a roll

They’d make sure it’d always have that

Nice full plump look to it
That cheap toilet paper
Never really has

Same with the toothpaste

Always had full tubes of toothpaste

And a clean brush

Every time

Like, right out of the package clean

Nice

So nice

The girls took right to it

Didn’t want to leave

Me, I had to sort of brace myself

Because I knew
They weren’t going to let us stay there

Forever

It wasn’t designed for that

It was all temporary

That’s how come they could be so nice

Because they knew

You weren’t going to be getting used

To anything

It's easy to be nice to someone
When you know
You won't have to do it
For very long

When we got to the first station

They asked us

If we were refugees

And we said ‘No’

Then I had to explain to the girls
What a refugee was

Because they’re too young to know

A—a—term like that

I told ‘em that some people

Go to different planets

Because they’re being persecuted

And they knew what that word was

Because I had told them before

I said some people go to Mars

To get away from trouble

And some just go

Because they got too much
Going on in their lives

To stay on Earth

Then they asked me

What we had going on

And I didn’t know how to answer that

So I just told them

We gotta get moving

Because the first station is pretty busy

And they don’t like people

Standing around

We got lucky

Because the voucher they gave us

For temporary housing

Was what got us to the hotel

With the automated—everything

The toilet paper

And the toothpaste

And really nice pillows

And sheets

And everything smelling so good

We thought we were in heaven

We really did

Especially ‘cause of

Where we come from

My girls had never seen

Anything like that

And this was on top of

Riding on the shuttle

And seeing the rockets

And hearing all the science words

And the codes for everything

One of the girls told me

They wanted to talk to their mom

Before we took off

But I told them

We’d talk to their mom

When we got to Mars

I couldn’t tell them the truth

That their mom is a heathen
That she's godless

That she thinks women should be like men

And all that other bullshit

And that’s why I had to take the girls

And get them as far away as I could

I talked to my friend who works with the launchers

And he hooked me up with the passes you need

Bumped me up the line

Otherwise the girls would have been teenagers

By the time I could take them off-planet

And by then

They’d probably already be on their third abortion

And second divorce

You understand what I’m trying to say?

This was a real salvation for them

It was a real, uh—

I mean, I was liberating them

And once they’re off-planet

Their mom’s never going to be able to find them

She might have some ideas about where they are

But communication is still so bad

That even an e-mail getting out

Costs a fortune

And half the time it doesn’t even work

You just get a bunch of ‘x’s and ‘z’s

And a word here or there

And thank goodness for that

I’m telling you

No matter what happens

This whole thing has been a godsend

It really has