Chicagoetry: Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge

"I've never seen an ugly bridge." - Marilyn Monroe

I'm fixing to bike my rainbow,
a pedestrian bridge across the Eisenhower Expressway,

a rainbow of concrete, asphalt and steel.
A man-made miracle - my favorite kind! -

like a nosegay or an opera,
circumventing a gorge of fatal metal,

a non-negotiable rapid of pulverizing lava.
A minor miracle in a phantasm of miracles,

transcending gravity and time. Time:
that most endangered of species.

And this is my bike. There are many like it
but this one is mine, embryo of the aeroplane,

man-made clockwork machine of time. Turns a half hour
into ten minutes, conjuring virtual pots of gold.

And with the help of some rainbows,
conqueror of highways, tamer of trains.

I'm like Evel Freakin' Knievel
over the Snake River Canyon

only I'm successful, every day,
High Night Flyer and Rainbow Rider.

And this rainbow is just for walkers and riders,
no room for the grayer, greedier time machines,

those fierce, fat gluttons of fire.

The idea of it is one miracle, the fact of it a second.
Someone in power thought of punters like me,

without a car but still in need of food and booze
and music and neighbors and streetlamps

from the 19th century. There is no purer rainbow,
end to end, every degree of its modest arc

(in the sunrise, the silhouette of a pirouette)
and I'm gonna ride it hard, every day,

savor to the fullest this genius of desire,
this aria of gravity, this bouquet of time

which is so quickly running out.

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J.J. Tindall is the Beachwood's poet-in-residence. He welcomes your comments. Chicagoetry is an exclusive Beachwood collection-in-progress.

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