McElroy Bridge

The bridge stands only a few meters above the water
Aged with crippled wood and missing planks
A skyscraper, reaching from ground to sky and across the river bend,
to a side shrouded from sight.
A place of romantic coincidences
Where the soon-to-be high school graduate witnesses
a first ever meteor shower,
Where the newly wed brings her husband to a childhood memory
of flinging get-well letters into the water
before winding up as an inpatient for mental rehabilitation
Love cures all, so they say–so she tells him,
Where trees grow so tall the sun fades from existence
all shadow and fireflies
until you cross over, look back
and wait for your straggler to catch up.