Bridge: Blackfriars
Title: Pay the Toll
Writer: Charlotte Mackenzie
Creative partners: Kalam Abul, Slice Media Agency
The work: 8 x 10 inches photograph in black and white
Description: A Dark Angels centena (poem in 100 words) as an ode to Blackfriars bridge through the passing of time. 100 words.
PAY THE TOLL
Charlotte Mackenzie
Pay the toll.
Once labourers crossing, carting their wares into the city,
Now my pulpits survey the mighty Thames, in all her glory,
Rocked by the clanking of fire-powered beasts,
Black friars long gone, so too the monasteries under that glutinous tyrant.
Dreamt up by a Scot, dreaming of Rome, industrial iron my arches hold.
A Queen awaits me on one bank, while on the other, workers scurry across like ants, towards the gleaming domes of St Pauls.
Many secrets I have seen during the seasons, even a hanging.
Yet still here I stand, surveying the Thames.
Pay the toll.