Boy On A Bridge Poem by Josephine Collett

All my life I have known
The shape of a track through sand and rock and stone
to the edge of pools where dark shadows
fill the water's face with reflected sky and willows
I have chased fish and hummed songs
Here where my childhood belongs
in the shallow streams and billabongs

Here I watched the current drag a paper boat
and lay belly-down on the timbered bridge
as it passed beneath, onward to I knew not where
my little ship of hope in the world afloat
and the chill of night descended and the curlew's sad note

Where does the water come from, where
does it go?
What is this ache in my soul as I see
it rushing below?
Am I not more than a dropp in a stream?
And all my desires, are they yet just a dream?
For the world is grown larger than a place
on a track, in a town, on a map, or my fingers
turning a globe, turning
And I will forsake the quiet pools
and follow the tumbling waters onward
with a blood pulse and a heart's yearning