This poem (and two others to be published in the coming days) are part of a growing sequence that is titled “No Iron Ring” and is making an analogous object out of the construction, edifice and ultimate destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. The ring functions as a symbol of engineering pride, fellowship and a constant reminder of the implications that engineers must encase human concerns into each of their designs. “No Iron Ring” is indicative of the author’s failure as an engineer, and henceforth my move into literature as a field of study. This poem along with others consists of the primary segment of the whole which will build, ultimately, to incorporate aspects of natural frequency theory within the poem.

it is observed
that for years of suspension
those who value structural grace
are required to calculate
that the driven external
sinusoidal force
does not lead to
induced self-excitation. they examine
this
with a mandate to finance
hoping harmonic resonance
leads not to exponential decay or
lost wages. the downward force
towards profiteering does not
ensure subsidence
of the torsional stress.
strung by the narrows
the sun comes out, bodies move
through the air with the
numbness of a bank draft
at which plants tremble

the exponential values of
across as a function of
sufficient physics
is founded in the bed side
book of birds, falling
water
yet silhouette is not a part of
wave phenomena but a tremble
of the bedrock. from the boughs
of forensic architecture
I am hung
by your every word.