urquhart limit
On three small scraps of paper
grandmother writes
‡‡‡‡‡‡how the suspension bridge
‡‡‡‡‡‡fell down
‡‡‡‡‡‡how the cotton wool
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡crash
‡‡‡‡‡‡pulled her from
‡‡‡‡‡‡starched sheets to the
‡‡‡‡‡‡lung-stopping chill
‡‡‡‡‡‡of the january night
‡‡‡‡‡‡how her shoes squeaked
‡‡‡‡‡‡in the snow
and looking at the
suspension bridge
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡lying
broken-backed against the ice
like an injured dragon
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡grandmother
must have wondered at
each of her magic crossings
but writes here
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡only
the suspension bridge
‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡‡fell down
and it did make a noise
Source: Urquhart, Jane. False Shuffles. Victoria: Press Porcépic, 1982. Section entitled The Undertaker’s Bride.
Click to see more of Urquhart’s The Undertaker’s Bride poems
The Suspension Bridge collapsed during a storm on the night of January 19, 1889