The Bridge

The brink, the verge, the plunge

jumping into the deep, the unknown

opening scene for dozens of movies

(Final Destination, Cliffhanger)

usually saved by a bystander,

maybe waiting for an intervention

(Last Train To Lisbon)

maybe not…man leaped from Golden Gate

(Gone In Sixty Seconds)

changed his mind on the way down

then saved by a sea lion. 

(Kevin Hines, five years ago)

The shore is also a bridge, a border,

between this water, this dry land

an edged place of ultimates   

where the Red Sea parted, 

or the troubled West Bank

the shores of Longfellow's Gitchigumee 

we all come to the shore

not just finally but many times

to cross our Rubicon, get ferried 

or else find the pebble at our feet

polished to jewel

like that tree planted by the water

we shall not be moved 

across this moment of great divide

where even Hiroshige's is a bridge too far.