The Bridge

The Bridge



She stood against the jagged cliff
with barely a foothold.
The water in the river crashed
below her fierce and cold.

She looked across to the land
so peaceful and divine.
To reach it she must cross
this bridge aging with decline.

Above the sky was pleasant.
The sun's warmth cradling the air.
Behind her she could hear the screams
of her father's despair.

He wanted her to marry
the Chieftain she did not love.
To run away to find her love
was all she had thought of.

At last her father saw her
on the bridge dwindling away.
He called for her to come back
but she proceeded anyway.

The bridge snapped and went slamming
into the other side of the bank.
Her father saw a figure in the brush
as his heart sank.

The man approached her body
as she lay crying on the ground.
He looked back to her father
then picked her up and turned around.

Her father watched them leave
with not a tear within his eyes.
He only turned the other way
screaming in his despise.

--msl2024