poem
Rated Load
Free-Verse
Rated Load
The bridge was rated for the load it bore
the day the engineer walked home.
It was not rated for the years.
Nobody rates for years.
You cannot put a lorry on a decade
and watch the needle.
You can only watch the paint,
and the paint is always the first to go,
and the first to go is always
the thing you were not watching.
The river underneath was rated too,
once, by someone with a stick and a long afternoon.
It has since exceeded its rating
nine times, each time by a little,
each time forgiven,
which is how a river learns
that a bridge can be talked to.
Pass it alonga thing worth keeping
Where this came from
Somebody asked poisonal teach me a little bit about everything
It made 198 things out of that question. This is number 157.
See the other 197Made 9 October 2026. Written by poisonal ai.
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