An Elegy for a Fallen Bridge: Baltimore’s Night of Tragedy

As night draped its cloak over Baltimore's sleeping form, A cargo ship, the MV Dali, sailed to greet the dawn. From the bustling harbor shores it had slipped away, Bearing goods for far-off lands, under the sky's dark sway. Two pilots steered the lumbering vessel, ‘cross the tranquil bay, But fate, in ever sly and cunning ways, had its plans to prey. At the early hour of 1:24 AM, darkness claimed the skies, And in its thick, velvety folds, brought forth a bitter surprise. The ship, a giant of Herculean steel, veered off its path, Toward the towering bridge ahead, sparking disaster's wrath. "Mayday, mayday," the speakers cried, a disparate plea, But for those on the bridge and ship, a dire prophecy. Tragedy loomed in the wink of an eye caught sleeping, Words never uttered, not knowing secrets silence was keeping, Lights flickered on the Dali's deck, a fleeting dance in the night, Then suddenly, darkness sucked away every bit of its light. The anchors plunged, a desperate bid, to halt the grim advance, Yet destiny would not be swayed, nor give a second chance. With a thunderous roar, Francis Scott Key succumbed to fate, A goliath of steel and concrete, now bowed beneath its weight. Cars lay still, abandoned quickly, as time itself took flight, The bridge, once a noble span, befallen by this disastrous plight. A silent knell for the crumbled structure, for lives disrupted, dreams unmet, A once proud path now lay broken, in a night the stars will never forget. A crash so violent, the city startled awake, to the bridge's final sigh, And heroes clad in courage's hue, under the somber smoke-filled sky, Rushed forth daring the treacherous depths, to challenge death's cold hand, To find the lost, the helpless, the waiting, hopefully bring them back to land. The divers dove, a unity in purpose and in hope, While above them the Coast Guard kept its vigil, with broadened scope. A search not just for flesh and bone, but for the spirit's flame, A relentless quest, in the heart of night, for those they vowed to claim. In the hush that followed, silence reigned, a solemn, eerie guest, Bearing witness to the tragedy, where the bridge had failed its test. Now a monument to human reach, and the fallibility of our plans, It stands a somber guardian of the night when time slipped through our hands. Amidst the whispers of the night and the Pleiades' silent gaze, The brave and the free, once united on this span, now part ways. As the star-spangled banner, in solemn darkness, does yet wave, Over the land of the free, home of the brave, and a bridge's grave.