Drivers out on the bridge
|
Slowing down as they go through a lane shift
|
Wires snap
|
Concrete gives
|
Metal twisting and
|
Everything tumbling
|
|
At the end of the work day
|
Stuck in traffic don't feel when the road sways
|
Underneath
|
Concrete gives
|
Metal twisting and
|
Everything tumbling
|
|
To their partners and kids
|
Don't suspect anything till the bridge splits
|
Wires snap
|
Concrete gives
|
Metal twisting and
|
Everything tumbling
|
Down
|
|
Where I sat I saw brake lights flash
|
And I pictured them: all the people, their faces in free fall, the water beneath
|
I pushed my palms against the table hard to see if it hurt
|
Were it glass would I have shattered it?
|
Could I battle every impulse to panic and then win
|
Swim out through the metal twisting upward like a sculpture
|
Or some terrible beast?
|
|
x2
|
People trapped in their cars
|
Put both feet on the glass and then kick hard
|
Water pours in
|
Seat belts twist
|
River flowing and
|
Everything going down (stream)
|
|
On the dining room wall I watched it
|
Play in the reflection of the television
|
The reversal in the mirror
|
Hung I could see it all
|
How the dust clouds gather
|
Color as they billow out
|
Shades change shifting in the night
|
From the lights atop an ambulance
|
Like a firework's flash then
|
That otherworldly glow
|
In the smoke thrown in the aftermath blows
|
Almost frozen for a moment there
|
I could see it all
|
|
Every
|
Dust cloud
|
Shattered glass
|
Billow out
|
On the TV
|
Wires snap and the
|
Concrete gives
|
Metal twists up and onward
|
I can see it all
|
Every
|
Dust cloud
|
Shattered glass
|
Billow out
|
On the TV
|
Wires snap and the
|
Concrete gives in
|
Metal twists up and onward I watch
|
And I can see it all
|
|
All the wreckage
|
All the cars piled
|
In the river and
|
The rail yard
|
Metal twists
|
Wires snap
|
Concrete blocks split
|
Dangle from tie rods
|
And metal twists up
|
Wires sway
|
When a breeze blows
|
In the distant
|
Sirens glow
|
I can see it all
|
Where they look for survivors
|
Searchlights float
|
Change the color of smoke clouds
|
And shadows still fall
|
People under the water
|
People trapped in their cars kick and try to get out
|
People still with their seat belts on
|
Pets they had in the back and
|
Car seats
|
|
And I watch it on TV lying down here
|
On the floor in the dining room reversed in the mirror
|
Where I know I'm not dreaming now
|
But I know I've been sleeping
|
I just don't know since when
|
I only know that it's light outside
|
I only know that the rent is still late
|
When did they find out the concrete gave?
|
When did they learn that the wires snapped?
|
|
-----------------
|
35
|
| La Dispute |
