XXXI
The notorious London ring road,
The dreaded M.25
Mutilates our landscape -
Destroys our countryside.
It cuts a noisy swathe
Of chaos and pollution
Posing problems which have no
Satisfactory solution.
Where wild birds used to sing
And wild flowers used to grow
Massive lorries thunder past
And filthy exhausts blow.
The noise is always with us -
On opening our front door
The distant muffled raging
Becomes a furious roar.
The festering, spreading wound
Now is ten lanes wide
An ever growing cancer
On Surrey's countryside.
The double-glazing salesmen
Have watched their profits soar
Though nothing really cuts out
That mind-destroying roar.
When the non-stop traffic
Makes me want to scream
I tell myself it's a waterfall -
Or a rocky mountain stream.
In no way does this deception
Lessen the noise,
But instead of driving me insane
It merely annoys.
The M25 started as 6 lanes, widened to 8
and then to 10.
Oct.1989
Revised 2011
