Youth

In the foreground, a 
child’s marble, made of
clear glass, incandescent, 
aglow with blue and
green streaks and swirls,
on a table cloth the color
of the ocean on a 
bright day, and in the 
background, a window,
the inky night sky, the 
luminous but gray moon,
smaller than the marble,
flat, distant, and in
the glass, an adult’s 
face faintly reflected, 
small, ghost-like, colorless, 
embedded in the 
starless black space.