Driving Across a Bridge

Our Nation has made great strides.
—Chief Justice, John Roberts, Shelby County vs Holder

for all the supposed wisdom
of [rivers] they offer no solutions
licking the docksides of [cities]
the open sores of [warehouse]
windows [the ragged] hoops of
vacant parks tagged and [slashed]
beside stone walls and forgotten
monuments of cement as I cross
the Whitestone bridge into Queens
wondering [who I’d be] on the
Edmond Pettus Bridge

mine is a tribe of immigrant
factory hands [raised] across
the Rikers Island narrows
[armored] in shot glass rings
[measuring ourselves] by
the hats and coats of others
[fearing what we do not have]
protected in the [normal] ways
the [family] ways the [generic]
ways the [muted] [necessary]
[every day] [ways] of hate

it’s always 1965 on the Edmund
Pettus Bridge [some locking arms]
some wielding [billy clubs] some are
[praying] others firing [tear gas]
others [walking] some on horses
some will [roll up the windows]
lock the doors [look straight ahead]
[stay in their lane] as the bridge
arcs over a river of lost history
bleeding out of Selma

• Author Details

Henry Crawford Contributor

Henry Crawford is a poet whose work has appeared in several journals and online publications including Boulevard, Copper Nickel, Folio, Borderline Press, The Offbeat and The MetaWorker. He was a 2016 Pushcart nominee. His first collection of poetry, American Software, was published in 2017 by CW Books. His poem Blackout was selected by the Southern Humanities Review as a finalist in the 2018 Jake Adam York Witness Poetry Contest.

web

http://henrycrawfordpoetry.com/

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