It´s Something

How many times have we
walked across that narrow wooden bridge
made for cows
and wagons weighed with hay

to cross our running creek;
a bridge for a boy to sit,
legs dangling,
watching minnows
darting in the sun;
a bridge
I´d never thought to ask
"Who´d built?"
thinking it was always there
like trees, and hills, and running streams.

But often now
I think about
the comfort of his bridge
and quietly thank him,
him long dead.

It´s something to build a bridge,
it´s something.

Other Borealis Press titles by Frank Tierney:

Come Climb a Mountain (1970)
The Birch (1971)
Beams of Love (1972)
Fire-Cloud (1972)
The Way It Stands (1974)
The Old Gold Woman (2000)