VIADUCT

I am not suspension, showing steel wires

from a height to span one river

I am not metal, ironwork bolted on,

from pre-cast shapes to save the traveller’s time across the road

I am not a concrete block, built in haste for motorways

I have Structure. I have style.

Befitting my position and my purpose

I am not just bricks piled high

I am the smooth passing O’er fields and rivers, roads and streams

I can carry you across them all.

Steam or diesel,

You ride across through vale and village

And will not know I’m there

But, walk beneath my arches

See me from below

And wonder at each engineering feat

Bestowed on me and then repeated

Arch on arch from end to end

Those who built me

Believed in me

They made me strong

And while the day is long

I am here for you, my friend.