The Bridge Poem by jim hogg

The dancing had started, the sun had gone down
The random partners all swayed
The streets were all empty, the lights of the town
Shone down where children had played

The starlight was lost in the light of the moon
and only your voice and mine
were heard in the night as we danced to a tune
that's almost as old as time

The angels of mystery come to me here
Their faces alive with the past
And they each take their turn at what might have been
And leave before I can ask
Which of us knows what is real, what is false
And who has the right to decide
Who gets to fly and who falls?


And time has been stealthily warring with flesh
Since you and I searched for stars
Through trees by the school with beams of green and red
A silver torch in my hand

The fishermen stand on the cliff and cast out
To capture their piece of sky
And Lucifer's bridge reaches down to the ground
Down where our lives all rush by

The agents of history come with their dreams
as if nothing else could be real
And they each take their turn at what still must be
And ask before I can leave
Which of us knows who is found, who is lost
And who could know better than I
Who gets to fly and who falls?


The hillsides are bare and there's ice on the burn
There's flakes of snow on the wind
And nothing is new down here under the sun
Except the fools on the ship

So arm in arm once more let you and I dance
across the old railway track
like wheat in the wind all on time's sudden lance
before there's no turning back