I choose a minutes slower
route within Google Maps
Such a lottery takes us longer
as we drive through mid-Sussex
Huge delays are common here –
because J.Deere tractors blast
along summer’s uncut lanes –
that narrowing of back roads –
fuming in their camouflage
of brand green and yellow –
ploughing dead straight –
making cars meet hedgerows
We hit dry spittles of sunlight
under jiggered shadows –
Here old wapple ways
are low to fields – almost-gorges
hoofed out by tramped centuries
of stick-herded stock
Where canopies intersect overhead
as prayer-grabbing fingers lock
to make summertime rooflines
under which we drive in instant night –
swooped – whilst our confines
of air-conditioning and auto-beams
make us – modern travellers – immune
to such a cool pleasure as shade