Bridges

Bridges have been around since Roman times. Or earlier. 
Bridges are engineering miracles though some Lego sets 
could likely compete. Even bridges made of rudimentary 
materials are marvelous in their ingenuity. Surprise! You 
can cross a river spanned by long bamboo poles lashed 
together with ropes and reeds. Schoolchildren in some 
very poor countries think nothing of crawling across 
such a bridge, in their flip-flops, with their one plastic 
backpack, to get to the only school on the other side 
of town. Thee are other kinds of bridges. When one 
country signs a treaty with another, the news captions 
pictures of politicians shaking hands, as building 
bridges together. One of them is brown and short and 
balding. The other grins in a suit and tie, white teeth 
gleaming. One of them has a nose that’s flat and flared; 
the other's, sharp and high sided. When I was a girl, my
parents rolled the flat side of a pencil against my nostrils 
every day. I knew other girls whose parents used 
a clothespin as part of their morning ritual.