Bridge
Photo of Prado Bridge
https://www.jfviladeprado.pt/index.php/pages/page/1
This story is from 1981. I returned to Prado many years later and visited the bar where my Prado friends used to hang out. I asked about a loira and was told that she had died in her thirties of a broken heart.
Prado is its name
a village without fame
save for its Roman bridge
they said I was the first foreigner
to pass it over
in almost two thousand years
a loira - the blond - she was
I mention her because
I fell for her
the village beauty
as fair as fair could be
but with a tragic history
five years before, on one weekend
as was the custom then
a loira travelled with her namorado
to a party at a neighbouring place
where she could showcase
her beauty and her dance
that night
there was a fight
between two men claiming her heart
the boyfriend would depart
not to be seen again
until his body was found floating
down the river
under the Prado bridge
I sometimes reflect upon the inequity
imposed on this young lady coping with the destiny
of one who had loved
at fifteen without a ring or a document
in a village where an adolescent
was not expected to make precedent
I wanted to wipe the tears from her eyes
I wanted to bring back her smiles
alas there was nothing I could do
she could never love again
after this had happened - way back then
2022
Click to read in Spanish
