Through the Lens

Flirting shadows
A little breeze
Through thick beams of metal
Rusty, red, hard with age
The trestle stands still
100,000 frames of life,
of stories
revolving/orbiting
Surrounding it
graffiti, tags, a secret language
written with spray paint and peppered with obscenities
Bouncing, glancing, trembling beams of light
reflecting off
the still brown water
standing stagnant beneath the bridge
mirror, mirror river small
who’s the dirtiest of all?
I’m knotted, snarled, crissed and crossed, confused and spinning
Simply, simply
Trying to see it all at once
Asphalt cracked, bags, rags
Scattered evidence of a will to survive
in another world, the edge, the door
Where green shines through murky haze
Of brown, of scum, of dust, of muck of grime of
100 weary years of time
woven all across the river
and
I’m trying to catch it
Glimpse it, snatch it
Through
a camera lens

Camila Perez, age 13
(2003 Finalist)
Watsonville, California
Linscott Charter School
Teacher: Linda Cover