This past week, New Brunswick lost another covered bridge: the William Mitton Covered Bridge in Riverview. Ray Boucher, Chairman of the New Brunswick Covered Bridge Association, suggested I write a poem. Of the 340 covered bridges in the province in the 1950s, only 58 remain.

the William Mitton Covered Bridge before the demolition (Source: CBC)

~

sorrow

William Mitton Bridge

1942 – 2025

“…because I’ve seen it die.”

Ray Boucher

advocate for covered bridges

in New Brunswick

~

crosses the river

for the last time

its reflection brief

in the brown stream

tributary of Turtle Creek

~

mud banks carved and sculpted

a waterbird, neck broken, a mangle

rubble of broken beams and boards

weakened burr trusses, punky beams

broken boards, holes for sunlight

to drill through

~

initials scratched and scrawled

on greying surfaces, overcome

with lichen, moss and mildew

inscriptions at weddings

graduations, tourists

school photos

~

its twenty-three metres

or more, once crossed

an Acadian river

Sainte-Marie-de-Kent

~

in myth, the ‘travelling bridge’

floated down the river

~

in fact, removed, by a resourceful

farmer, William Mitton

~

purchased the bridge

took it down, plank by plank

moved, rebuilt in 1942, to connect

his farm to Coverdale Road, his name

became the name of the bridge

~

a  place    to  play

between   rafters

thump and climb

chase        echoes

a place     to relax

watch      the river

between        gaps

in    wall     boards

~

spring floods

and abutments reel

snow loads break its back

echoes fail beneath snap

and sag of weakened boards

~

an excavator, a high hoe

a crane, lifts its rigid neck

takes the Mitton Covered Bridge

apart, one wood fibre

at a time

~

All my best

Jane Tims