Washington Avenue
Bridge, Minneapolis
‘Down so many did
descend…’
(John Berryman, ‘Dream
Songs’, number 80)
Poet John Berryman
took his own life by jumping from this bridge, 7th January 1972.
One September I drove
over the bridge, East
to West.
Echoing through concrete
and steel,
southbound geese were
crying above.
In green, gold and
black
The Mississippi bent
the sunshine,
but tired and fighting
traffic,
I could look no longer,
neither down nor back.
Meet the bridge that
downed the man:
Bridge ID number 9360,
Seventy- foot clearance.
Built 1965, Plate
Girder design.
Two hundred and fifty
one feet its longest span.
Let’s also remember
the poet then
who mentally rehearsed
this act,
honed, picked-over,
perfected
since the age of ten.
Meanwhile, an old
man (they call him Mr. Bones)
scrapes old paint,
adds new,
takes a smoke break
and thinks
the way old rivers
do:
Some say ghouls whisper,
urging us to leap.
Man, those voices
are really rat feet scratching the rust.
People lay down their
briefcases, rucksacks or books,
button up coats, then
my Lord! Just
go down
Tom Bryan
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