A bridge too far

the trials and tribulations of others,

gathering knowledge aplenty with attentive grace,

of long ago people and places,

of ancestors, that knelt to pray in crumbling ruins.

 

Only,

if we can possess the wisdom,

to listen with our haunted hearts,

we will hear,

as they whisper in their ghostly voices.

 

Saving the lessons and fond memories too,

as luck would have it,

of struggles surpassed,

the way necessity finds invention,

like the miser man, who always finds a way to save a penny.

 

And then those pennies, used perhaps to buy a ticket for the dance,

the dance of a thousand veils,

thinly hiding you, my secret enchantress.

 

But I could not talk then,

my voice was stolen by thieves in the night,

in their somnambulistic dreamy creeping,

leading me to a void complete with little substance.

 

But, please know this,

my withdrawal was not from you,

it was to me,

I had to go back, back to me,

for I had lost myself,

on red carpet paths.

 

No bridge now to cross,

it fell incomplete,

And though our love has drowned,

it lives still, downstream,

as you do too,

each time I speak your name.

 

Words and photo (C) Kevin Daly 2026