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BY DAVIDMURRAYLAW@GMAIL.COM

Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.tripadvisor.es/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g189171-d10121655-i290759367-Prado_Bridge-Braga_Braga_District_Northern_Portugal.html

 

Prado is its name

a village without fame

save for its roman bridge

 

they said I was the first foreigner

to pass it over

in almost two thousand years

 

a loira - the blond - she was

I mention her because 

I fell for her 

the village beauty 

as fair as fair could be 

but with a tragic history

 

five years before, on one weekend 

as was the custom then 

a loira travelled with her namorado 

to a party at a neighbouring place

where she could showcase 

her beauty and her dance

 

that night 

there was a fight 

between two men claiming her heart 

the boy-friend would depart 

not to be seen again 

until his body was found floating 

down the river 

under the prado bridge

 

I sometimes reflect upon the inequity   

imposed on this young lady coping with the destiny 

of one who had loved 

at fifteen without a ring or a document 

in a village where an adolescent 

was not expected to make precedent

 

I wanted to wipe the tears from her eyes 

I wanted to bring back her smiles 

alas there was nothing I could do 

she could never love again 

after this had happened - way back then


 

2022

Click to read in Spanish

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