Stone Arch Bridge 3:00 p.m.

[pegkerr]

no sun
no shadows
drape the air with cloud and mist
gray soft cool
mist softens the silhouette of the charcoal gray smokestacks
enshrouds and dims tops of the skyscrapers
the summer crowd that walks the bridge during the sunny days is gone
only me
a woman walking a blanket-swathed baby carriage
a man in a pea coat staring through the viewfinder over the river
austere gulls flap
wheeling
wheeling
wheeling
jagged parentheses, slate against the sky
gray and ebon-tipped against the snowy foam of the falls
white against the pewter river
spray from the falls breaks the water surface
black silver gray pearl white
shadow in the lock of the dam reflects white of the sky
foam from the falls roars into shadow