Ice Cube and A Steady Perch

I walked back inside from the playground as the cool evening settled in, stepping onto the dining room sideboard. Resting near a ceramic tea canister was an unsharpened pastel pencil and a small round cork coaster with a beveled rim. Kneeling down on the smooth dark wood, I guided the pencil across the grain with both palms until its flat end rested squarely against the inner lip of the coaster. It settled flush into the hollow circle with a soft, dry tap, held snug so it could not roll away. Sitting back with my boots tucked under me, the little arrangement looked remarkably still under the dim lamp.