I walk along the seaside alley of my hometown and the oblique shadows of the poplars on the sand mark the approaching end of summer.

I walk along the beach among the few remaining sunbathers. The familiar afternoon breeze carries me forward to a pier stretching out into the Black Sea like a stage. From the platform at its far end, teenagers hurl themselves with abandon into the water, in a continuous game of dare. 

I walk among curious onlookers, drunk with sunlight, frustrated fishermen and cyclists whose destination inevitably ends at the edge.

Made of concrete, steel, and rusted memories, The Bridge is where life in the city of Burgas, Bulgaria plays out. 

I take one more step and then I take a photograph.

Anastas Petkov’s photograph The Bridge in Burgas, from his series The Cruelest Theater, is the cover of the March 2017 issue: From the Edges of Europe: New Bulgarian Literature.