Lovelocks

 

Dawn sunshine over Seville highlights a filigree metal bridge crossing Rio Guadalquiver.

 

Hot Andalusian sun warms a thousand padlocks clipped to iron each with two names and a love heart.

 

Scratched and etched with a stylus or a marker pen

Locked and Interlocked to form a Love Chain.

 

Young love in Spain, the start of things to come.

Lives entwined, Promises fixed to a bridge above a swirling river.

 

Junta have decided the metals don’t mix and a noisy removal begins with cutting tools filmed by a TV crew.

 

How did those lives pan out amongst the Bitter Oranges

Still joined or far apart, together or broken.

 

Two years and two thousand dreams end up in a rusty wheelbarrow destined for re cycling.

 

Graham Ramsden