I used to get off the bus a stop early and walk across the Washington Avenue bridge over the Mississippi river every day when I was at the University of Minnesota. There’s a nice pedestrian level on top of the traffic lanes with an enclosed walkway in the middle of it and that’s where I came up with this poem. It’s the same bridge that John Berryman jumped off of.
The Bridge
You stop to pull up your knee sock
Smiling with that careless disdain
Which was once a virtue
Six planes in close formation
Pass over a circle of women, heedless
Sitting in the middle of the bridge
Children’s voices,
Laughter
Or do they scream
Yr Pal,
UBU
A Leak In The Safe 