Member-only story
Poetry
An Art Steel
– standing on the footbridge over the River Thames between Embankment and Waterloo Stations
Steel pillars plunge unwavering
despite the trains
rumbling their rail tracks
the constant daily progression
whilst Westminster peers between
white struts and straddling girders
the great eye turning with the tide
and Big Ben’s hourly chanting tells commuters
to carry on scurry on by
There is a beauty in these great legs
their rust peeling in patterns
like coast-lined maps of undiscovered countries
each rust-stroke tinted in water-colour
and defined by Indian ink
But these accidental galleries go unnoticed
by the shoals of people who
hurry the footbridge too quickly
eyes seemingly sightless
None stop
None acknowledge these unobserved galleries
their preferance for accepted art
Yet once these canvases are drowned
beneath high tide’s reclamation
their secret sinks within their artist’s heart
buried underwater
but all will rise triumphant
next time the tide goes out
