Spell of the bridge

Hold the wish on your tongue
As you cross
What the bridge cannot hear
Cannot fall

For the river would carry
Your hopes to the sea
To the net of a stranger
To the silt bed of dreams

Hold the wish on your tongue
As you cross
And on the far side
Let the wish go first

Helen Lamb
 
From The Thing that Mattered Most
(Black & White/Scottish Poetry Library, 2006)