when you walk around
it’s easy to spot the well trodden paths
that people have made for themselves
they’re those worn-down patches in parks
the ones that branch off and cut across the grass
between the trees
a people’s hypotenuse
in Finland, I hear
when the city wants to pave some new pathways
they send workers out right after fresh snow fall
to see where people are walking
these are desire paths, or desire lines
the natural behaviour among people
that shows you where the optimal path
should be
desire lines are any paths roads or routes
officially acknowledged
or not
that people exhibit a preference for
apparently after the Great Fire
Christopher Wren tried to lay out the city in a regular grid
but Londoners continued to walk along
where the old winding streets had been
using the old, unburned stone church-spires to navigate them
walking through the construction sites
forcing the streets back to their old places
like ants we walk our preferred paths
a trip to the newsagents
the route to the office
we probably go this way and that way without thinking
there's beauty in desire lines
expressions of collective will
indicators of the memory of repeated human actions
our own engravings upon the landscape
my experience of life has been
that there is more to be discovered
by stepping from the tarmac
meandering off down a dusty track
delighting in the possibility of liberation
offered by these paths which appear year after year
a complete disregard to those official routes
laid out by the parks department
one day you’ll be walking along
and see those little trails of history criss-crossing the land
and think 'that’s where someone followed their desire'
