William Barnhill

Creaking with every travel sought;
Weathered planks speak while granting passage;
Over a clear dark rippled flow;
To generations of the faithfully unchanged;
Their horse drawn vehicles disappearing within;
Or emerging from the sun spotted shadows of this sheltered stretch.
Built by their father's fathers;
Who found a need to bridge this chasm.

Laying unchanged these years;
Among tall maple and oak;
That were but seedlings at its conception.

Mirrored among the leaves of autumn;
The ice of winter, the rain drops of spring;
And the dandelions seed of summer.
Hand hewed covered span has labored in quiet slumber;
Gripping the earth, connecting two sides;
Carrying families upon its great back;
From one side to another.
Home to squirrel, pigeon and mouse;
Sheltering school children from summer storms;
Guarding the planks from ice and snow.

Always waiting above the endless flow;
Above the life that hosts each pool, rock and hole;
Witnessing the cycles of death, life and rebirth;
These, the seasons, that bind and govern all;
Standing in its stately might against the decades steady passing;
Adorned with moss upon its shingled hat;
Beneath the armor of one hundred layers of color;
Marked with lovers proclamations on every post and column;
One for every bonding it has witnessed;
Granting safe passage to all that wish to cross;
To the faithfully untouched;
To the curious, to the traveler;
To the Sunday driver and companion;
All its beauty and simplicity are given;
For the poet in us all.
For the seeker and wonderer inside us;
That makes us turn that extra corner;
That makes us look a little harder;
At the splendor and perfection in a simple passage;
From one side to the other.