Bride on the Bridge

                                  Down at the landing stage the sign reads 'Havoline'

And you buy the diesel there, back in the old routine

You pay up your harbour dues and then, from the anchorage

All in her wedding lace

You see a bride on the bridge



Her coat on the balustrade she bought at a fire-sale

She's been married to debt for years

And now she's climbing the lone guard-rail

Gulls are er Mendelssohn, she has a bouquet of foliage

That no-one here is reaching for

Slowly the bride on the bridge



Those raising interest don't look up



They have no interest in her flight

Their spectrum has no bridal white

They don't leave the scene

Not when money talks

The whisper-mill says "Buy Brazil"

That is if you don't mind blood on the stalks



Cargo comes rolling in, containers of even size

there's no rafts or floats aboard - so what if lives

capsize?

Trading takes no account of strangers to privilege

Not if they can't keep up their balances

She's vanished, the bride on the bridge