The bridge is strong and gracious,
\nproud.
\nConnecting banks of dual self,
\nand spanning black waters deep
\nand predatory. Rapacious.
\nSinging songs to suck you in
\nand drown you
\nin the roiling waters of their murky lies.
\nWhispering tales
\nof your hopelessness and failure.
\nShe has heard so many sighs
\nof condemned souls which walked
\nacross her span to their predicted death.
\nI found my shadow self today and watch
\nas she emerges from the dark Venetian walls
\nto greet me like she knew me centuries ago.
\nShe watches me stand on this sighing bridge
\nLight and shadows, shadows and light,
\nand I lurk in dark places, shaking with fear,
\nlest my shadow can see her reflection
\nin my eyes.
\nBut my bridge connects my alter and my ego.
\nShe holds me high above the swishing, sucking
\nrivers of destruction. Sighing, knowing that
\nthe choice is mine. I can stay on this bank or
\ncross
\nto the side that looks so dark, forbidding,
\nunknown.
\nOr I could jump and drown in suffocating lies
\nfilling my lungs and soul with fetal waters -which?
\nThe amniotic fluid lures me with escape -an end to the agony
\nof sorting through years of flotsam and jetsam,
\ndriftwood of a life
\nlived partially.
\nBut the bridge connects both paths
\none to the other and back.
\nTo cross to the other side
\nwill not cause the bridge to collapse
\nnor my life to end.
\nThe bridge will be there standing
\nas long as I need it to be.
\nAnd now I see light
\ntunnelled down through tall buildings,
\nsplitting the two banks and illuminating
\nthe waters surface with promises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The bridge is strong and gracious, proud. Connecting banks of dual self, and spanning black waters deep and predatory. Rapacious. Singing songs to suck you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,28,31],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","tag-poetry","tag-prose","tag-venice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/youngjo.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}