Her plan By Sanjana Mahesh

The Bridge Builder

BY WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE

An old man going a lone highway,

Came, at the evening cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and deep and wide.

Through which was flowing a sullen tide

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fear for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here;

Your journey will end with the ending day,

You never again will pass this way;

You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,

Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,

“There followed after me to-day

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

This chasm that has been as naught to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;

He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

                                                                                                            

Her plan
By Sanjana Mahesh
A young girl freely strolls by the boardwalk

past the vendors that try to sell and talk

during midday, the sun was shining bright

but the humid dank air wrapped her up so tight

there were miles left to walk yet no endpoint

The people nearby so perfect and set

as though they were part of a Barbie set

too many expectations for a child

when she would rather run amok, so wild
maybe play a new born game all today

The lass floated down to the sandy shore

looking for anything but the same bore

the waves came so steadily and surely

she begged for a break from the regularly

scheduled and ran to spontaneity

All the way past the horizon she ran

for she was not chained back by any plan

although her heart was free to roam about

her mind clung to loved ones she’d die without

if only a bridge right there she could build

where the land of fancy had no suggestions

she could go and live with no directions

here where she had such brilliant guidance

but also suffocation and no dance

left to falter, fail but fall back again

not ready to leap and fly she must wait

till her seconds wane and avoid the bait

her future awaits yet must be restrained

the present cannot let her go unchained

for her plan wasn't allowed to be self made.