Bridges We’ve Dreamed

They didn’t tumble all at once.


They didn’t meet a thrilling demise -

They died a hundred little-deaths

And we watched with clouded eyes.

They didn’t unravel in swathes of flame,

Kiss the water with screams of steam -

They were nibbled and chipped by

Wind and rain,

Lost souls and wayward dreams.

They weren’t torn down with orphean hands,

Burnt at the stake of tomorrow’s
tomorrow.


Their rigging was fraught with windy joy

And rust that spoke of sorrow.

Stories were written long after the fall

And all but one are false.


Now they lay in the river’s bed


And dance a stygian waltz.

Hailing from Dalston, Hackney, Jean Akintoye is a London-based performance poet. He studied the International Baccalaureate at UWC Atlantic College, and has since seen print in The Looking Glass Anthology (ed.13 and 14), The Nouse and The Resonance Anthology (2025). Having survived a bachelor's degree in English Literature, he is now working on a collection of his own.
Stylistically, Jean aims to strike a balance between the stylistic flourishes one would expect from 20th century Irish poetry (see also W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney), the far more disruptive overtones of modern spoken word and, perhaps, just a dash of comedy. This results in a performance style that is as elegant as it is messy, frenetic yet precise, creating a bridge between the “old” and then “new”.