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A nightmare that should never have been written

She leaned through the ropes
as children always do,
slipped though the space
that seemed too small to give.
Watched her helpless, slamming 
off the rocks, sliding down as
her skidding form slumped, watched the life
leave her as she slide down the final rock.
She plunged into the water,
and then my daughter was dead.
When my wife caught up to me, 
I told her what had happened.
We can get another one, she said.
But you don’t understand, she is dead.
We will never see our precious one again.
I shook in horror. I would have to tell 
my third grade teacher, the one who said
that I was useless, that she was right.

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