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Poems
189
and we didn’t have any other men.
And Mama left, slamming the door –
and I lost a baby tooth.
And Grandma told me to toss it away
and say:
Little mouse, little mouse,
take this baby tooth and then
give me an eternal one
and I burst into tears
because I myself had thrown the mouse in the garbage,
and that meant now Vovka would never
marry me –
and Grandma laughed
that mice don’t hold a grudge
and Vovka said
that, personally, his old Marfusha didn’t have
a single tooth
and he loved her anyway –
and we began to cut snowflakes out of paper,