Troubled Bridge [Free Verse]

Photograph of a railway bridge over the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Iron skeleton
spans the water.

Weeds sprout from ties,
rust eats its way under
flaking paint & over
rivet heads.

I remember the whistle's blow,
a long, long time ago.

“From a Railway Carriage” by Robert Louis Stevenson [w/ Audio]

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!