"The Bridge Poem" by Donna Kate Rushin

I like the " The Bridge Poem". When I first read the poem, the title of it made me think that it was going to say something positive about being a bridge, because from my personal perspective a bridge is something I relate with unity and service, something useful. I was surprised when I read the poem and realized that the author did not want to be a bridge anymore. But after thinking about it, and reading the poem once again, I can understand the reason why the author does not want to continue being a bridge. If she continues being the bridge between her friends they are not going to make an effort to reach out to each other. Her friends, the groups she mentions in the poem, are groups that are supposed to have common ideals, nonetheless they do not seem to understand each other. There is something that separates them that is stronger than the ideology that is supposed to unite them. The author seems to say, and I agree, that people need to understand, without a "translator/bridge", why they seem to feel like they are all like separate islands instead of like one group of people sharing a common history, common goals and probably a future together, and then resolve those issues so that they can move on together. But this process of understanding oneself is a personal individual experience,  if you do not do it by yourself you do not learn. The author also admits that she needs to go through that introspection process herself before she can be a real bridge. Perhaps she has to continually be a bridge because she really has not been an effective bridge so far because she is still learning about herself,

" I must be the bridge to nowhere

But my true self

And then

I will be useful" By Donna  Kate Rushin.