Here We Go ‘Round... The Roundabout?

By G.E.Shuman

I’d like to share, in this space, today,
a highway phenomenon, if I may.
It’s a circle… a plain, quite common shape.
But it’s now on our roadways, for goodness sake.

It’s a new way to head off to work, or some shopping.
Intersect other roads… all without ever stopping.
You all know, by now, what I’m talking about.
They are central Vermont’s brand new roundabouts.

Roundabouts, or traffic circles, they’re called.
Some think they’re just great, while some are appalled.
They can take a road crossing, and make it a pie.
Forgive me for laughing. I must just ask: “Why?”

A roundabout is just a circular line.
What once was a cross is now a peace sign.
Or an ‘O’, or a ‘Q’, when it’s seen from the air,
a pinwheel of pavement, when viewed from up there.

We see corkscrews of progress with big arrows, so bright.
Couldn’t someone have just strung up new traffic lights?
Yes, time marches on, and improves all our lives.
But, if so, why do we drive COUNTER-clockwise?

Like concrete crop circles, they all are appearing,
right there in our roads, instead of corn clearings.
We whirl on these carousels, built for our cars.
We’ve seen dogs chase their tails… and now we’re chasing ours.

A sign of the times, you might wistfully say.
And I could agree, in our quite mixed-up day.
That what we will build may express who we are.
If our world lacks direction, why not spin in our cars?

It’s a circle of life, for the vehicle world,
where cars, and vans, and semi’s get twirled.
And spit right back out, with unending perfection,
if all goes as planned… in the right direction.

Could it be a wheel of fortune, we see?
Or a roulette game, made for you and me?
Round and round she goes! Now turn the wheel hard!
Where she stops, no one knows. Maybe in someone’s yard?

It’s a test of their training, for drivers of trucks,
for wiping out cobblestones, saplings, and such.
Twisting their trailers, some thinner, some fatter,
circling the edge of each new Vermont platter.

If you somehow don’t care where you end up today,
then get on and get off, in just any old way.
You can head for adventure, now zippity-zip,
when you start in a circular traffic trip.

‘O’ shaped roads are ideal, ‘O’ so round, ‘O’ so wide.
For people who simply can’t decide,
to go home or to stay for another swift churn.
And it’s fun burning gas, while you’re missing your turn.

I hope you’ve enjoyed going ‘round on your tush.
But I wish they had planted a mulberry bush.
I’ve tried here, with words, to express my dismay,
of getting nowhere… in a roundabout way.


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