Urban Traffic

A shift is taking place within our town in recent weeks;
Police have noted how it’s changed, like tent with many leaks –
At first it looks like it’s okay, but when it starts to rain,
Effect of many tiny leaks is like a widespread pain.

I’d heard about this shift or change, and noted it as well;
But when I went into that town, ,that’s when it’s meaning fell
Upon my heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and then I knew –
It’s urban sprawl that’s coming now to rural town-life too.

Not sprawl of buildings, sewers, roads, but values, needs, and pain;
The things we see in rural life out here now and again,
But not like what I sensed in here writ large before my eyes –
For that is more like freeway life – a crash where someone dies.

But death, though bad for one or two, is not the worst effect
Of all those pileups which we see, it’s more about the wrecks
Which limp away from this or that bad accident in life,
And try to carry on each day, as hurt within this strife.

I grew up there, so it’s like home, I recognize it well;
I did not fit there as a kid, I thought it was like hell
On earth, “That’s not community – I came from one, I know
You’ve not a clue what it’s about – I’ve seen, and know it’s so”.

But urban values, way of life, is spreading o’er the land;
Out here in rural neighborhoods we thought that life was grand;
Oh yes, we’ve problems, here and there – things get a little tight
For us to live, but not like that – that lifestyle isn’t right.

For many years it’s multiplied, compounded, gotten worse,
Just like that tent at Boy Scout camp, or like some penny-purse –
There’s many holes all over – rain sprays in, and coins disperse;
The barriers are giving way which now one can’t reverse.

“The big bad city” is the myth which floats in rural life;
Though it’s not true, and will not shield us from the spread of strife,
There is a grain of truth in it, and it’s what’s helped me see,
That there’s a role which we can play – support which we might be –

For tow-truck drivers need a break, a chance to reconnect,
To get away from urban life where so much more is wrecked;
What if we made a place for that – said, “Come to me and rest;
And then return home to your work renewed, and filled with zest”?

What if we joined that pulse of life – renewal and return?
What if we helped the workers there recoup, go back and earn
Their living shoring people up with long work over time,
But not alone – as body-part – your life now shared with mine?

Could we infuse that urban life with rural values too?
Affirm the best of neighborhoods in all they say and do?
Would urban values slowly change until that urban sprawl
Which can’t be stopped, then pour good life out here – make winners all?

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