The years have taught me to take a B road
whenever I can dodge the stress of work,
and celebrate not hurrying along
to a deadline, meeting or appointment.
Switchbacks and hummocks, valleys and bridges,
warehouses and workshops, churchyards and pubs
instead of never-ending hard shoulders
and motorway tarmac’s relentless thrum —
longer, slower, even meandering,
B roads let their tales unfold, mile by mile.
They stop me pointlessly churning over
what might happen at my destination.
