WEBVTT

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So I'll end with one really
short flash piece, prose poem,

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or essayistic poem.

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It's less than 750 words.

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That was the constraint.

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It's called "Tether."

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"I didn't realize until later,
after the lights were out

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and the sheets were
tucked around her,

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that my daughter asked that I
hold on, that I hold on tight

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to the balloons, that
what she really wanted

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was for the party to not end.

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And she thought that if
we held on to the balloons

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that the party would not
end, and she needed my help

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in this one sure,
party-saving act.

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And that is why she had
what we call a meltdown.

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Her mother failed to
help her in this one

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act that was sure to keep
us at the party forever.

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She had asked me previous to the
balloon time-stopping attempt

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to give her the moon.

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Can't reach it, she said.

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I too could not reach it,
knew I could not reach it,

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but showed her
that I was trying,

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that I would if I could.

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And she has said the sentence
as clear as a bell tonight.

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Mommy, let me have it.

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And it was stunning, the
message, the sentence,

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the want, the clarity of that.

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We have given her the balloon
at the top of the balloon tower.

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It is a giant, shimmering,
silver star balloon

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that, after we
had dismounted it,

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was discovered to be full
of the buoyant helium.

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Hold it tight, I tell her,
so that it doesn't fly away,

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so that it doesn't go up and
stay with the other stars that

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are too far away.

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I try to placate her so that
she will not cry the whole ride.

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Someday, Mommy will
get you the moon.

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I realize now that that is what
I do when I hold her at night.

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I am trying to keep us here.

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I'm trying to keep her from
floating away and staying where

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I cannot reach her.

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And between the darkness
and the bad dreams,

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it is solely the hold
that makes her trust

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the deep drowning of sleep."

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Thank you, guys, for
listening to all that.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]