• Little girl
    in a sunshine yellow dress
    playing in her mother's garden


    In a bed of sunset orange roses
    lay her best friend
    her china doll, Missy


    The young child grows tired
    of the lazy garden
    and ventures into the vast forest behind her house


    Missy doll's feet scrape the ground
    as the small girl trudges through the landscape
    looking for a new place to play


    She hears the rushing water of the river
    that familiar, rumbling sound
    her mother warned her about the harsh waters


    But curiosity,
    as it so often does to young children,
    clamped its grip upon her thoughts


    She unstrapped her shoes
    and undressed Missy doll
    the foamy blue water already tugging at her toes


    Smile spreads across her face
    a small giggle escapes her lips
    she decides to tip toe in another inch


    Smiling innocently
    she walks further still
    the rocks on which she stands become bigger


    And the current races faster
    smile vanishes
    it becomes harder to hold on to Missy doll


    But the river is too strong now
    not letting the girl turn back
    and the water thunders on


    A surge of water creeps up
    then explodes with full force on her back
    Missy is ripped from her small fingers


    The girl screams in shock
    and lurches forward
    trying to save her helpless friend


    But the rocks between her toes
    are mossy now
    and slick as a pane of glass


    Unable to stay in place
    the girl is carried along
    left to the river's mercy


    Churning foam
    picking up speed
    picking up rage


    The girl is still afloat
    clawing at the water
    as it tries to pull her under


    And the river hits rapids
    tossing on rocks
    spinning in circles


    She is tossed and flipped
    she can no longer make any sense
    of the distorted images she sees


    Desperatley screaming
    wasting her air
    and her head slams into the uncaring pillar of stone


    Eyes closing
    the girl looks up
    the sun is crystalized in the waters misleading surface


    The last bubble trails from her lips
    the young body still carried in the current
    but lacking the life it once possesed


    A china doll on the riverbank
    utterly complete
    as whole as the day it was bought


    It once belonged to a little girl
    that loved to play in her mother's garden
    the one who wore the yellow dress...