Instructions for the Long Way Round

Do not take the bridge.
Take the road that curves
behind the allotments,
past the wall someone
painted a heron on
in a colour that has since gone honest.

Lose an hour on purpose.
Read the sign you have passed
ten times before
as though it were new.

When the town with the good bread appears,
do not stop yet.
Stop when the light goes amber
and the fields begin
to look like they are thinking.

This is the long way round.
It is not shorter.
It is only yours.