Bridging the Tappan Zee

by Rick Spreyer

[ca_audio url=”https://nyacknewsandviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/BridgingTheTappanZee_NMLevine.mp3″ width=”350″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”] Read by Noah Michael Levine

These lights at night were not there
   Before they barged into the prospect,
   Cranes slung across the decks.
Conybeare, a suit with a radiant TV smile, says
We can expect a hundred
barges in our river, the mighty Hudson.

They—these constructors—tap
 Into the river bottom seeking sediment—
   Unearthing the past to discover
     what is there. What is there?

So far no sound,
No cacophony, no dust,
No mud and dirt along
The river roads.

They will come,
And the noise will come with them.
The chaos and confusion
Will grow out of the lights of
These two barges, now five,
Soon more.

A horror of traffic
And noise with no
Public transport.

Drums along the Mohawk
Trucks across the Hudson.

Rick Spreyer looks at the Tappan Zee Bridge and the Hudson from his home in Upper Grandview, NY

Tappan Zee Bridge Painting “Faithful Lady,” by ©2013 Sue Barasi
Read by Noah Michael Levine, a voice actor who lives in Nyack, NY.