“Your problem is to bridge the gap which exists between where you are now and the goal you intend to reach.” Earl Nightingale quotes (US motivational writer and author, 1921-1989) “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.” George Orwell quotes (English Novelist and Essayist, 1903-1950) “The wise man bridges the gap by laying out the path by means of which he can get from where he is to where he wants to go.” (John Pierpont Morgan) ____________________________________________________________ The bridge spanning a river of tears false starts promised promises hoped hopefully stagnant at the very bottom the surface floating aimlessly the red like a touch of your smile as a thought passes by bridging a mood from here to blackness a passerby walking through the night smiles as he goes by amused, bemused by the muses music in the air wondering how he can use this to free himself and in the distance a band plays imagine an image of imagination the fog rolls in, the dream is gone there is no comma there is no coda just the sound of passing water lapping against the bridges sure footing BIRD Poem Copyright ©2006, Frederick Douglass Perry, All Rights Reserved