I Once Lived

I once lived there on the water and the bridge is famous
Like in pictures or wedding cakes, frosty and white
But crossing it is like rolling suitcases on stairs
crossing over is ordinary
stone and pavement
but underneath
ferries and speed boats

I once lived there for a short time
I met a man who knew the same people back home
Only he didn’t really know them except as fellow professors at faculty meetings
Coffee shop with a little air conditioning is where we met
It was not a romance
We became a pair and took a ferry to an island to hear music in a medieval church
Mosaics of Christ and his cohorts on the ceiling

I once lived there the same as glass blowers and grave diggers
Like the live camera pointed at my bridge
A tongue clicking in code
Before my breath
An undefined future tense