This is a City of Bridges
       

This is a city of bridges,
though the water is mostly fled;
a city of ambitious span
and empty bed.

It makes for a curious skyline:
from the road you'd think
of skyscrapers at a watering hole
stooping to drink

except that there's no water.
The old canals are parched,
and no one comes to sing or suckle
under an arch

and no one quite remembers
what the bridges were for,
what we were getting over, and why
we're still building more.

But build we do. More bridges!
Bridges to make us free.
At the foot of each the traveler has
a choice of three

but nowhere to rest at nightfall
when the bridges chase their tails,
churning between dusk and dawn
like buried wheels.

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Copyright © 2013 Jeff Dolven All rights reserved
from Speculative Music
Sarabande Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission