"Routes"

Leaving the 'Flying Dutchman'
It's got on my goat
I'd have got home quicker
If I'd gone by boat.
Which is no minor feat
As I'm six miles from the River
But what else can I do
If the tubes don't deliver.
Stroll up the road
One bus goes past
I'm not in a rush
And it's not the last
So I jump on one
Going the other direction.
Head to London Bridge
For a train connection.
No service from there
Engineering works
Such are those Sunday
Service quirks.
Go down below
For the Jubilee Line
Canada Water Overground
All will be fine.
No idea what's going on
A twenty minute wait
By the time I get there
For my last service too late.
What a shambles
Pointless to fuss
Last Northern Line
To the Elephant
To get on the bus.
If I'd kept on the road to Peckham
Would've been home by now
Comfortable on the 197
As it is I'm not a Dulwich Plough.
Trying to quell my anger
What's the point in that?
It's all my own fault
For being a lazy prat.
As my bus stops outside King's
Something lightens my mood
Desperate not to laugh
For that would be rude.
If I thought my trip home
Was taking some time
There's a couple at this stop
That are anything but fine
For there's no direct route
To Balham from Camberwell
Suddenly my journey's fairly simple
As they face the cab fare from hell.

Dulwich Poet 10th February 2014

( After leaving a back street pub in Camberwell, on the 343 bus route, one passed me, heading for Peckham just up the road, where i was going to get a bus home from. One came the other way, & I jumped on, as I was in no rush really, expecting to get a late train home from London Bridge. Proved to be a much longer journey than expected. On the 'last leg' on a 176 bus, a couple in Camberwell were miles from home, with no way to get to Balham by public transport. As a result of hearing them I scribbled this down for the rest of my bus ride home.)