Downriver by Mims Sully

They said 'That's all water under the bridge;

you have to forgive'.

But they did not see the murkiness,

nor hear the slow slop of the muddy river

against the muddy bank stop, clogged;

the artery blocked.

Nobody comes here anymore.

One set of footprints streaks the soil

as if its owner slipped.

Tin cans, plastic bags lie half-buried,

buffeted by the wind.

A chemical smell hangs on the air.

An old blanket frays in the shadow.

They said 'That's all water under the bridge;

you have to forgive'.

But echoes resound from the tread

of thudding footsteps overhead,

dislodged dirt falls through cracks

into the brown water beneath.

And everything can be heard

if you listen

to the voice lost

downriver.

---

Mims Sully has been inspired to write ever since taking an Open University Creative Writing course which she passed with distinction. She has been published in Prole, Strix and long-listed for The London Magazine Poetry prize 2016. She is currently assembling a pamphlet of poems about dementia based on her experience of looking after her mother.