Clark Gormley #84 A New Way

While I was cycling

a driver warned me once

“the road is for cars”

delivered in the tone

that a klansman would drawl

“we don’t like your kind round here”.

I looked around and

realized he was right.

Cycle lanes are an afterthought.

Shoehorned between large

parked and moving vehicles

propelled by internal combustion

life is dependent on

a combination of luck

and good grace.

But hear me out.

I have a solution.

Look at a map of your town.

There are unused paths.

Stormwater drains,

flat, paved and empty.

Well, 98% of the time.

And what would you rather?

Contend with a bit of water,

or a motorist with

if not murderous intentions

then a blithe disinterest.

They run not alongside

but under the roads.

No more tests of nerve

at intersections where

you know you have the right

of way but lack the respect.

Yeah, okay

I hear the militant faction say

this is just segregation.

But it’s what we want

what we need

what will deliver us.

The revolution continues

in our wheels

and as your spokesman

brothers and sisters,

I declare that it is only

when we are down in the gutter

that we will find our road

to Beulah land.