Your Father Said

That if you dawdled on the bridge
The Teg would come for you

Turn you into one of them

You meet your lover
On the green side of the bridge

The cold stone soberness
Of boots
Not what you expected from a cariad

The water chases fish around the rocks

And the girl waiting on the other side
Scowls at his nerve

Your Father said
That God was a gentleman

And easy to forgive
But if you dally on that bridge

You sit on the keystone of the span
Watching fish chase hooks

Bewitched by the rush of the river below

Gareth Writer-Davies was Commended in the Prole Laureate Competition in 2015, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and the Erbacce Prize in 2014, Highly Commended, Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize in 2013 and 2012. His pamphlet “Bodies”, was published this year and is now available through Indigo Dreams.