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She said it's "Brittany, not Britney,"
as we walked over the Mathematical Bridge.
I asked her if that was a reference,
but there's more than just a difference in nomenclature.

She said, "My name is Brittany Etheridge
but there is also a Britney Etheridge,
and she's a walking disaster."
I said "Hey, I never knew..."
as I looked into the river.

"Did you know about this bridge?" she asked me,
and I answered, "It's just a way between shores."
But there's always more to what is there, there's history.
"It was here before computers, before the wars,
before Britney Etheridge."

I could see my reflection in the water below,
warping my face with the current, and
it left me with nothing but a desire to know the history of all things,
but mainly Brittany Etheridge.

She told me, "Isaac Newton built this bridge
without any screws or bolts. Now that's engineering."
And I agreed with a nod and a smile.
"Britney Etheridge wouldn't care though."

She kept talking after that, but all the while I thought
about the bridge, and how there're screws here now.
She told me, "Isaac Newton built this bridge
without any screws or bolts."
Robert Ronnow Sep 2018
The April morning's quiet
and so is the November.
Wherever people outnumber trees
or the dominant cover type
is unquiet. Nothing wrong with that.
Walt got it right, and Jane Jacobs:
the city is an experienced,
used beauty. Her toes are long,
nails thick and hair thin. Yet
her kisses can be sweet; or
smell of ****. All my life I've tried to point my window toward
some narrow wedge of nature.
On ****** Ave., over the roof
beyond the chimneys to the park
where every dog was walked.
Could I survive soot and an air shaft now, pigeons and cats,
or even a desk in the legislature for my lot in life. How about
prison like Etheridge Knight,
Nazim Hikmet?
I've gotten soft.
When he builds that house in the pocket
wetland my window now looks out on,
the developer will have given me what I need.
Amphibian mortality,
gravel, fill,
oak, ash and maples felled. Good
to the last drop is our bitterness, our love.
www.ronnowpoetry.com
Sean Critchfield Aug 2013
I got caught caring again.
I got caught believing the little lies were light and that they marked the end of the tunnel.
I got caught letting my mind slip to the hairs on my pillowcase turning gray but always smelling like her.
I got caught believing that beautiful things last and promises are things we intend to keep.
I got caught hoping.
Hoping that my forever wasn't the losing half of a wishbone.
Hoping that storms passed and the sails, though tattered, would be true.
Hoping that my brand of love was not a fools errand. Not folly.
I got caught up.
Caught up in all the things we said we'd do.
Caught up in plans and promises and kisses and contracts.
Caught up in a ball of yarn so dense that it felt like a forest in my heart and I with no way to see the path for the trees. Until I saw the trees for the path.
Caught up in every should have. Every would have. Every childish want for a do-over.
I got caught waiting. Biding time. Angry. Jealous. Hopeful. Discontent. Capitol. And sipping wine with Etheridge Knight when I knew the Knight was darkest before the dawn.
I got caught in the middle. The rope in a tug of war between my head and my heart.
I got caught gnashing my teeth in futility. Clawing the roots, begging the tree to move.
I got caught wandering a path around the outskirts of the hole in my chest like a crater.
I got caught lying. Trying to convince myself that I was better off and better for it and better when the soles of my feet touch open road.
But the wine is sour. And the trees are burnt. and the dawn has come.
And I will not be caught again.

— The End —