Sydney Harbour Bridge

Heavy heart, egg shell
fragility
applying maximum effort to smiles.
Programme: mere existence
I am a defective robot.
Bound to melancholy,
fused with bottomless pessimism,
shutting down.
Tequila tears, midnight madness
deny the remaining slots their fill
for I am
a jigsaw girl.

Towering structure,
glittering chrome,
up you, I climb.
Trophy on Australia’s fireplace.

Sun beams, sponge eyes soak in:
dazzling blue,
merging ocean and sky – turquoise yolk.
Dancing reflections, in which
clouds sail, boats float
beyond which stand
silver buildings,
shining.

Mountain bridge, I travel over.
Above me birds soar, and like one
I feel.
Wing-like freedom spreads, with wind
stroking, whipping, caressing,
hair flies.
With the waves below, beneath,
fear ebbs away,
long shore drift of yesterday.
Escalating higher, further.
Happiness intensifies.
From numbing ocean,
I emerge.

Superior construction,
path from despair,
I step down.

To the ground I return,
feet and pavement kiss.
Scanning smiling faces
of fellow travellers
physical journey the same,
emotional journey
miles apart.
Stomach now settled, butterflies have
stopped
their spinning race,

they soar.
Metal limbs of the bridge
have lifted
my weight, and
under that cerulean sky, in
generous arch shade,
peace comes,
jigsaw complete.

- 2010