Bardwell’s Ferry Bridge

by NICOLE K. BRADEN-JOHNSON

It extends its yawning limbs across the valley;
Crimson metal twisting in the morning warmth,
While river mist slips through the heavy beams
Depositing fresh dew on gleaming arches.

Time passes indifferent to the clock,
But tracing the movement of the light
And the intermittent drum and rumble
Of solitary cars across the platform.

Every now and then a person stops
To catch a bridge-view glance of the olive hue
Of the forest’s rippling leaves that shimmer
Against the river’s tumbling current.

The passersby are quickly chased away
By the urging of some impatient honk
to get home, to work, to eat, or to a screen’s
mesmerizing dream of other people’s lives.

As the cool of sunset contracts the frame around the joints,
Alone again the red bridge sighs.

Nicole K. Braden-Johnson has previously published poems in The Write Launch, Spires, as well as in her monthly poetry column “Unheard Melodies,” featured in the local publication The Visitor. She is a Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts alumna and in 2016 she received her M.A. in English from Westfield State University. Nicole lives in Conway, MA with her husband, David, their newborn son, Kenneth, and numerous companion animals.