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While visiting friends on Christmas morning in 1988,
I witnessed my darling daughter, approaching fifteen
months of age, full of holiday exhilaration but not yet
skilled in the art of running in pajamas with built-in feet
on a ceramic tile floor, falling face-first directly on top of
the gorgeous young purebred Himalayan house cat our
friends had newly purchased for a large sum of money.
The incident might have been a tragedy had not our host
been operating a video camera at the moment of impact.
Instead, it belongs to another genre. Kitten and child
survived without evident injury.
As years have gone by, my darling daughter
has lost her footing from time to time.
If I were pressed,
I believe I might confess
I have sometimes wished
she would completely crush
the creatures for whom
she has fallen.
♦
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