Inexpensive Progress
Let's say goodbye to hedges
And roads with grassy edges
And winding country lanes;
Let all things travel faster
Where motor car is master
Till only speed remains
Destroy the ancient inn-signs
But strew the road with tin signs
'Keep Left,' 'M4', 'Keep Out!'
Command, instruction, warning,
Repetitive adorning
The rockeried roundabout;
When all our roads are lighted
By concrete monsters sited
Like gallows overhead
Bathed in the yellow vomit
Each monster belches from it
We'll know that we are dead.
Extract from "High and Low" (1966) by John Betjeman
www.sensibletransport.com
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