Our poet Wendy Webb adapts the text of an article in the Eastern Daily Press, adding her own interpretations in this tale of two tragedies. Day 686 of the daily poems.
Suspension failure
After reporter Caroline Culot, Eastern Daily Press 30 January 2021
The Suspension Bridge Tavern has history
and can be found – for now – along Bridge Road,
in Yarmouth – great no longer – on a high tide.
It is for sale, just £200K, and more…
with planning permission for conversion, to seven apartments.
A prime location – you might say – by a busy road.
Permission herein granted: for demolition.
A tragedy! A pub to pull no more.
Pull pints? Or tales, around a cosy fire?
Who knows? Too late. It’s going to be knocked down.
A local tragedy – of epic (19th century) proportions…
unviable to convert existing building –
by modern standards, it’s architecturally unimportant.
It’s sad to see it go, so near the sea,
(by Auction); named after a bridge that once collapsed
in 1845. Killing 79 people.
A clown called Nelson… (Nelson?) pulled a stunt
for a circus on the river, pulled downriver (by four geese).
He sat in a barrel; a large crowd gathered round.
Suspension was no match over the River Bure.
What spectacle! To collapse by the weight of hundreds…
I guess this Nelson was unknown in infamy?
Preserved in a barrel of rum; that other namesake,
and buried beneath great Wren. Oh, what a tale!
Please raise a glass, for the demise of the Suspension Bridge Tavern;
a suspenseful tale beneath a broad East Anglian sky.
Wendy Webb
Found poem previously published: Quantum Leap Open Comp 2022-05
(4th Prize)/Issue 98. Lines and words from Caroline Culot in Eastern Daily Press January 2021