The Collapse

The fender bender wasn’t the worst part of his morning commute

Summer rush hour in DC
Traffic crossing the Potomac
Tour guides entering the city
For the first tours after COVID

On a small overpass bridge
There was a traffic jam
A fender bender on the edge;
Around it cars would cram

The driver of a damaged car
Got out to check his fender
But as he stood near the safety bar
What he saw was a mind-bender

The bridge trembled like an earthquake hit;
concrete crumbling due to imperfections
Like a loose bolt a bicycle could get
To wound its rider in an intersection

A lifeliner landed near the edge
As the bridge perched in place for a minute
It rescued a baby, a man with a cane
And someone who worked in the Senate