Swooping round the roundabout
Cruising down the straight
Looking for the checkpoint
Scared of being late.
Navigator hoping she has read the rules aright.
Driver thinking “FINAL CHECK” would be a welcome sight.
It’s a masochistic exercise;
A game that adults play.
A grown-up form of hide-and-seek
That leads us all astray.
Some go round in circles, some go round the bend.
Some are never seen again until the very end.
You may nickname it a “Fun Run”
But it really is a “trial”
And the hapless rally driver
Greets the checkpoint with a smile
That tries to hide the certainty that somewhere on the way
They have misread an instruction and for that they’ll have to pay