Driving back from Art Class – the diversion

A crushed velvet corridor

Plump and green

Studded with the yellow stones

Of cottages with small windows

A deserted Ashton Keynes

No sign of any residents

Only cars lazing in drives

Grasses and nettles

50 miles per hour signs

Rush past me

Under the grey-blue sky

Bats and bright red telephone boxes

A large leaping hare

Scoots up the road

Foxes?

Seemingly unafraid

Then darts right

Into a hedge-edged field

Milk churn advertisement

Fronting a barn

Fresh eggs sold here

At this time of the evening

The eggs are all gone

And the honesty box, emptied

awaits another day’s slow trade

I didn’t choose to come this way

The choice was made

By the highway’s agency

And I’m glad they did

For the detour,

I feel more balanced

With a sense that life

Is calm and good.