Toby Marlow - Sharp Teeth

Sharp Teeth Quotes

Diving forward, looking back,
she finds there is only the loosest
bond between time and pain
some things don’t pass,
the injuries don’t heal
they merely find a place in our guts
and in our bones
where they fitfully rest
tossing and turning between out knuckles and ribs
waiting to wake
as the shadows grow long.



He knows that it’s impossible to tell a wolf
from a man if
he keeps his chin up
and his teeth clean.



And were you corned by her,
eye to eye,
you would see that there are still some watchful creatures
whose essence lies unbound by words.
There is still a wilderness.



“Liquor is a funny thin,” he says.
“It can make a wise man an idiot and then,
almost magically at times, it makes an idiot wise.”
… “Yes, liquor is the thing white coat of paint
you wash over the cracks in your foundation.”



She knows people can only
stand so close
for so long
but her body tries to hold as much of him as she can find
as her mouth measures the length of his neck,
the width of his shoulders.
There in that embrace, she feels something
shuffling around, moving warily
fumbling through the dusty rooms of her heart,
and, one by one, turning on the lights.



…the bullet we are running from
is almost never the one that hits us.



You either trust or you distrust coincidence.
It’s either small doses of magic pulling
you to your appointed destiny
or the devil trying to lead you
down to the thorns.


…moving like a whale
swimming through the
endless blue seas
of its own deep and infinite dream.


On the rare clear evenings
they could watch the sun retire
tucking itself down behind the sea.
And there on the beach,
lying with their bodies together
they would warm each other through the night
until those first fingers of dawn
came to tap them awake from their sleepy embrace.


As she stared at the ceiling the first night
her body softly falling back into itself,
she thought of how we dream of journeying
on spaceships to other universes, other worlds,
but really, for the forever,
we’re stuck here on the dirt and
the only time we travel anywhere truly unknowable
is when we slip into the skin of another,
venturing into their mysteries,
always hoping for
a safe landing.


Knowing someone isn’t coming back
doesn’t mean you ever stop waiting.