Le Pont des Arts

So many hearts on the love lock bridge

'Pont des Arts', Paris

Photo by Dietmar Rabich via Wikimedia Commons

 
Fallen from sleeves and onto the rail
Reflected back in moonlit waters
In a Paris fairy-tale.

Rain-kissed rust splatters the oldest
Announcing the age of love
Padlocks fixed those years ago
Now often thought of.

Seven hundred thousand and counting
On each, engraved a love note
Of three words and a special date,
Or an overused Shakespeare quote.

A key tossed into the river
Of the Parisian Seine
Creating heart-shaped ripples
As it floats downstream and then

Settles in the mud,
Clinking against the others.
Those thousand chunks of metal
A symbol of the lovers.

And now the iron begins to bend
Under the weight of l'amour,
Railings balance on the edge of danger
For tourists who adore.

Heritage defaced by fashion
For the sake of an Instagram post
An icon attacked by love locks
A fact ignored by most.

The waters turn a shade of rust
As iron melts into the stream
The bridge creaks as the weight builds - 
             Au revoir to that fairy-tale dream.

'Pont des Arts', Paris

Photo by Dietmar Rabich via Wikimedia Commons

Read about the Pont des Arts and it's #NoLoveLocks campaign here.