Arterial Lane

highways, built on an efficiency principle
rupturing the downtown aura of all the
cities that could have been great
across these disintegrated states of
nonsensical nomenclature;
when you're behind the wheel
which is the philosophical position
of choice, round these parts
you want to get where you're going
directly and as quickly as possible
even if your road crosses out the paths
of whoever else could have trodden
a less well-used thoroughfare