Jewry st bridge

Gunmetal road
xylophone rails
breathe like that old
vapourlocked EH Holden
your dad had
strangulation blue and around
the goon-eyed, bifold fender
a three day growth of rust
an astronaut grin, the jawbone
from high orbit, crashing back to earth
more patrician than abrasive
the one with Venetian blinds and rainbows
in the curvature of the glass
as if a gondola raced down
Constable’s flooded streets, past the Doge
a fallen gumtree lurking
with a crocodile intent
beneath the red brick arches
of the Peel St viaduct 
nothing is ever quite as close, as it seems
the rail bridge
built by invading Romans
of iron cast, from sheeting silver, curving away
in brute and manacle latticework
their mathematics lapsed, levied
to that noxious lead paint intoxication
highway frequencies 
monoxide bright
time in that clumsy columnar link
grinds from first to second as it shifts