flashquake Poetry

BRIDGE BUILDING
by Michelle Cameron

One sees da Vinci,
sketch in hand —
arguing in voluble Latinate
with sneering engineers

the bridge that should have been erected
lay crumpled in the paper
five hundred years.

Today, in Oslo, unveiled:
the Mona Lisa of bridges —
as though, by molten alchemy,
the Master’s hand moved north,
passed over time and space
and bridged death’s gaping chasm
to pronounce, ah, che buono —
and add, with a sad shake of the head:
it took you an intolerable span
to be no longer blind to what I see.

Copyright 2003 by Michelle Cameron

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