roads are the roots of cities
toxic tar and petroleum
smothering strangling choking

Earth cracked 
split the roads
gashed them deep

walk not the roads,
sings the oak

walk not the roads,
sings the ash

walk not the roads, 
sings the thorn

they do not listen,
the horned and the hoofed
the furred and the feathered
they do not listen
becoming food for the roads

they loom over the horizon
those hungry cities
with bones of steel and teeth of glass

in the night
their strange lights blot out the moon
frighten owls
confuse bats singing for their prey

in the day
their fumes blot out the sun
poison the rain
turn rivers to acid

roads are the roots of cities
smothering strangling choking
Earth mile by mile by mile

[Written by Rebecca Buchanan.]