the special relationship

transatlantic cultural exchange

we borrow from them

and remake after our own image

     and

           vice versa

but there’s surely been nothing so strange

as our reconceptualisation of

the comings and goings

of their beat generation

 

if Kerouac and Cassady had’ve known

where their road would lead

would they have remained at home?

 

pensioners by the thousand

armed only with a sense of entitlement

a packed-lunch and a bus-pass

traversing Britain from

north to south, east to west

taking advantage of

the new government initiative

allowing national free bus-travel

to those over sixty

 

*

 

on the road

from Cornwall to Cumbria

living fast

and not dying ‘til they’re old (er).