* * * I’m in a swimming hole w/ R___. A tree reaches over the water. There’s a bird nest on a branch within reach. Inside the bird nest, a mouse made of living marshmallow feeds her marshmallow babies. My daughter hasn’t noticed. She is looking away. Inexplicably, I pull a lighter out of my swim trunks & set the nest on fire. It catches magnificently. The mother mouse, burning silently, leaps from the nest & falls, dead. She floats on the surface, a charred & roasted marshmallow corpse. R___ looks back, but I swiftly direct her attention elsewhere. I no longer feel like swimming. * * *