I found this great rolled up balloon

      inside my parent's medicine chest.

      I was eight years old.

      I blew it up and filled it up

      and tied it all together with a string.

      I bounced it up and down

      and slogged it all around the bathroom sink.

      My mother caught me.

      "Do you know what that is?" she gasped.

      "Sure," I said.

      "It's the thing Daddy uses

      when he gets his period."