⩚⩛ step off the pavement

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'