The ferries on the Humber river in England were replaced by a magnificent bridge, but memories are alive.... <br /> <br />HULL CORPORATION PIER <br /> <br />if God is anywhere, it is here <br />an unexpected and unreceived visitor <br />bending an ear at the unruly Humber <br />as it bangs the seasick jetty like a death drum <br />stopping the booking office clock <br />at twenty-seven minutes past nine <br />throwing down a golden pontoon bridge <br />walking drunkenly to Lincolnshire <br /> <br />lunatic waves foam, like the jaws <br />of countless rabid whales <br />snapping sterns of belly-flopping barges <br />taking their lives on the concrete shore <br />crick-necked cranes idle like ageing courtiers <br />in King George Dock; fat, bemused pigeons <br />hop the pier’s planks – from their tiny dartboard eyes <br />seagulls ride on the salted wind <br />that brews far beyond Grimsby, and never dies <br /> <br />brown water splutters, licks through <br />oozing, gangrenous cracks <br />an oily lorry driver speculates on its demise <br />- the Bavarian church roof, always out of place <br />each morning, a couple of grey overcoats come <br />talk of steamers, or the Farringford <br />second-hand from Southampton <br /> <br /> <br />Notes: With the opening of the Humber Bridge in 1981 ferries between Hull and New Holland, on the south bank of the river, ended <br /> <br />Farringford – more modern ferry, not a paddle steamer<br /><br />Paul Judges<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/hull/
