O you ruinous usurpers of a peaceful day’s stroll.

You ravenous circling vultures.

You flurry of black vampire bats.

You buzzing brood of horse flies.

 

You know nothing of the pleasures of pace,

Nor the joy of meandering down a shivelight promenade,

Nor a placid saunter around our Holy Family’s lakes,

Nor the quiet ambling amid budding birdsong.

 

You despise contemplation; you make war on delay.

You prey on those lost in thought, or the interlocked couple.

Wickedly mimicking the darting bee and the mockingbird,

Your steady hum soon spells dreary disruption.

 

Our most sacred pedestrian gardens,

The last haven from that satanic exhaust,

You seek to foil and succeed to spoil

As you accelerate over our weary toes.

 

I fervently pray that soon

All your brute batteries combust; your handles contort;

Your sleek metal corrode; and all foundry melted

Until the world is rid of you forevermore.