Scenes from the Bridge

"Shot gold, maroon and violet, dazzling silver, emerald, fawn,
The earth's whole amplitude and Nature's multiform power consign'd for once to colors..." Whitman, "A Prairie Sunset"












Each man, woman, child, – clothed to autumn, cool wind –
a leaf of color themselves; green turning golden, flash...
look at how they swim across the thinning grass bent
over the handles of rolling bikes that will not give in.
How the concrete is warm-blanketed as they pass over
the bridge then stop to admire the phosphorescence,
the ducks below shaking off droplets from cooling wings.
Lift up the scene to imagination and here seasons flow
upwards, from shaded rooms to the clouds we can't live in.