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Traffic Lights

Traffic Lights

 

At sixteen years I bought myself the finest birthday prize,

I bought a motorcycle and despite my mothers cries,

I set out to the open roads spurred on by youth and zest,

Through summers never ending it was better than the best.

 

God knows I took my chances though the roads were traffic free,

In nineteen sixty life was rich the world was just for me,

Petrol only four and nine no parking fees to pay,

Those curving coursing loving lanes would lead me far away.

 

The coastal road with the endless turns and vistas to delight,

The steep decline for raging speed hard burning through the night,

Quite helmetless I felt the wind come tugging through my hair,

And I was Hector sword in hand the hero without care.

 

There was no simple reason but to me it was my all,

I heard the siren calling and could not resist the call,

And even when a friend was killed it didn’t stop the urge,

When both desire and fantasy are licensed there to merge.

 

It wasn’t speed or not just that that pointed to my goal,

But something deep within my being was seeking to be whole,

I rationalised that freedom was the catchword for the way,

And never really saw toward the closing of the day.

 

But that was nineteen-sixty and those days are gone and past,

They sped like tarmac under wheels, they were not meant to last,

They fade away like exhaust smoke they flow like hourglass sand,

And Hector is a myth to men and mirror to the bland.

 

And yet on glowing summer days old byways fill my heart,

Despite the warnings of the jams I need to be a part,

Despite the price of petrol I’m a careless wanton fool,

And throw away the rulebook where a memory must rule.

 

But now I’m nearing seventy I’m driving very slow,

There is no need to get there and there’s nowhere real to go.

A queue of traffic builds behind when I drive down the lane,

And Reps in their Mondeo’s think I’m just a bloody pain.

 

They simply do not get it that I do not care a jot,

No doubt they think I really should be taken out and shot,

Another creaking aging fool that’s bunging up the road,

But of this fact I’m certain I’m at one with Mr Toad.

 

I’ve been looking at my licence that I’ve held for all these years,

In just five months the thing runs out, some little cause for tears,

I’ll have to get the medics just to say I’m fit to drive,

It’s only when behind the wheel I really feel alive.

 

So I’m looking in my mirrors ‘just as every driver should’,

Keep watching for the traffic police keep trying to be good,

Try not to speed, don’t drink and drive, and never overtake,

And quite ignore the sounding horns from drivers in my wake.

 

 

 

   

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Comments

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John Coopey

Fri 31st Jan 2014 19:06

Just read MC's comments. I did indeed have a bike - a BSA Bantam and then a Honda.
Looking back there is a bit of street cred about owning the Bantam. But there wasn't at the time.
I pushed it miles.
Even when it was going it was an embarrassment. I remember getting overtaken and jeered at by a possee of 20 scooter boys as I was flat-out at 50.

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M.C. Newberry

Fri 31st Jan 2014 17:05

I never owned a motor bike...sports cars were my
thing directly I passed my test. Open topped
joys like an MG TC, a Triumph 1800 Roadster
(anticipating Bergerac!) and an Austin-=Healey
100M with a louvred bonnet. But the time and
delight captured in the words match my own and
I can tell their author that having just renewed
my own D/L in anticipation of my 70th birthday,
I had no cause for requiring a "medical". Long
may it be so!

vinty

Fri 31st Jan 2014 15:50

I love it! I'm halfway through doing the same thing and keeping it rubber side down. Long may you continue

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John Coopey

Thu 30th Jan 2014 21:54

Sounds like you've a few years on me, Ian, but I get far more mischievous pleasure out of driving slow than ever I did driving fast.
Some of these lines are almost too good to be in a poem with so "light" a tone.
You have excellent touch with words.
Do you ever perform them live?
Incidentally, if ever you get stuck behind someone driving even more slowly than you who has an "Old Bastard On Board" sticker in their rear windscreen - give me a toot.

<Deleted User> (11875)

Thu 30th Jan 2014 02:39

Oh thank you for this beautiful piece. I loved the way it painted an image of exhilaration and then snapped back to present day. It took me away.
There were a few lines that didn't flow as well as they could have but overall I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. Thank you again!

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