083013 #treefrog 110810. Watching the squirrels. She laughs again. Between each letter of the word she spells for him, she makes a wet sound with her mouth, like she's been sucking on candy. Suddenly I think about butterscotch. It is fall, after all. I remember the soft kitten-rasp of tongue on tongue--tasting another human being--how the energy of it sent me up the liquidambar tree. Aromatic resinous balsam. The wood of youth.