When I turn off the lights and my Niño and Niña get close I immediately note the absence of my Rosemary on her side of the bed. And I think. I do this without forgetting Captain Beefheart’s Ashtray Heart lyrics, “somebody’s had too much to think”.

Photograph by Rosemary

The thought tonight was about having sex with Rosemary and the fact (and it has to be a fact) that having been married to her for 52 years, I did brush my teeth more often than the extremely pleasurable act with her.

That thought immediately took me to the many times that Rosemary would place breath mints on my night table. Particularly when I smoked my Cuban Montecristos I knew that any number of brushings would not take away the taste. It was similar when I smoked Balkan Sobranie in my pipe.

Rosemary must have cringed in bed when I kissed her. Luckily I can report that I gave up smoking 203 years ago so Rosemary had some tobacco-free sex with me.

I miss it and every time I brush my teeth I remember. And I also remember that right after we met in mid December 1967 in Mexico City, when we were both teaching at a school that sent us to teach English to executives at American companies, we found ourselves both doing so at Colgate Palmolive.