For Bethany

I found a perfect mouth marble yesterday on the locker room floor.

Clear glass - bubbles (no swirls) - and smaller than a regulation marble (probably from someone's cheap-ass flower arrangment). I know, I know, a locker room floor...but one must be fearless about these things.

I rinsed it in the sink and popped it in.

Nice...good weight, good size, clear sound, relatively low choking hazard. I poked it with my index finger until it clacked all of my Wisdom Teeth in order - upper right, lower right, upper left, lower left - Samuel, Saul, Edgewood and Hanson (okay, I have not actually named them, but isn't that funny?).

Then to the front, tongued across my teeth:

Ta-tick, ta-tick,
Ta-tick, ta-tick.

And:

Tiddle ta-tick, tiddle ta-tick.

I spit it into my fist, grasped it hard in the crook of my index finger, and squinted through at the bright, round world...and, don't laugh - I think I saw your face.