Collapsed Pedestrian Bridge

by matthew scott harris
(schwenksville, pennsylvania)

...not exactly meant by getting stoned!

The new 950-ton bridge would beat
down time dashing to classes cheat
ting vulnerability asper thick traffic 
     putting life at risk, 
     thus laudatory alternative
 
     intending to offer Sweetwater 
     to last a lifetime would make fleet
(installed at Florida International University, 
     with eager pedestrians ready to greet 
crossing grand opening, 

     where local dignitaries didst meet 
     viz Miami-Dade County 
     Saturday (March eleventh 2018) 
witnessing ghastly collapsed 
     Thursday (March fifteenth 2018) 
afternoon onto Southwest Eighth Street. 

An unknown number 
     of fatalities surmised, 
while several others 
     were hospitalized. 

Prior to groundbreaking 
     with placement guised
of the attendant pomp 
     and circumstances exercised
setting cornerstone, 
     the projected 
     general estimation apprised

sans building costs totaled $14.2 million 
and funded as part of a $19.4 million grant 
from the US Department of Transportation. 

The fact sheet boasted the sheer intensity 
comparable to withstand strength of a 
category 5 hurricane, and supposed to last 
for more than 100 years. 

Within the blink of an eye, no ifs ands, 
nor abutments squared with ratiocination 
earning civil engineers bragging rights, 
which boastful, delightful, fanciful stead
fastness touted thwarting titanic tenable 
taxing shock waves. 

Now only a scattered pile (formerly comp
rising beams footings, and piers) of rein
forced concrete capped with a bent ele
ment defying hallelujahs, karaoke kudos,
and bobble headed nods,

now impish jinns keep leering, mocking,
and naysaying to fading echoing reverberations
leveled at the laughingstock of an architectural
(duff) feat. Further scrutiny will attempt to cap

chore structural weaknesses. Amidst snapped,
crackled, and popped strewn cables entwined girders
(whose premature destruction) will also warrant
any arresting tell tale signs of unusual stress.