The Canyon's Edge

This summary includes the following poems: “Come Back,” “Wonderstruck,” “So Close,” “Twitch,” “Dead,” “Acceptance,” “Guilt,” “More,” “Complicated,” “Nightmare Rewritten,” “A Blur of Brown Legs,” “He Follows,” “Rewriting,” “Freedom,” “Desolation,” “Growth,” “Flying,” “Blackbird,” “Landing,” “Defeated,” “Strength,” “Together,” “Pulse,” “Hope,” “Closing,” “Fire,” “Mom,” Crescendo,” and “Still Fighting.”

Nora refuses to give up. She wants Dad and her to both survive and live fuller lives. Seeing a fox looking over the canyon’s edge, Nora is “wonderstruck.” She wishes Dad could see it—and when she looks down into the canyon, she sees him. He lays on a ledge five feet below the canyon’s rim, his arm twisted behind him—but he’s on the opposite side of the canyon. She shouts, but her voice is ruined from screaming the night before. Although she’s afraid to look, she must know if Dad is alive. She’s energized when she sees his fingers twitch. Without the rope, Nora knows she can’t climb down the canyon and up the other side to Dad. She remembers him saying she could probably jump the canyon.

Nora realizes that she now accepts herself. She felt guilty and selfish because her parents put her life ahead of theirs, and Sofía Moreno sacrificed herself for her boys by tackling the shooter; she died but saved everyone else and gave them a chance to live.