“in the days of the fox a snake will be born and this will bring death to human beings it will encircle london with its long tail and devour all those who pass by” this is what geoffrey of monmouth set down in the eleventh century transcribing the document known as the prophecies of merlin in this case merlin foresaw london’s orbital m25 motorway jaws of bridge over and tunnel under the thames at dartford grasping the serpent’s own tail this ouroboros constantly sheds its own skin of motor vehicles each scale a car or truck hence the name of the nearby town of slough the snake always renews itself in time to consume another rush hour of human woe the road is a kinetic sculpture serving as an idol that reconvenes older ophidian cults from norse myth the world serpent jörmungandr whose venom will exhaust the sky when the world ends or apep the ancient egyptian night snake who attempts to swallow the sun during its commute home through the underworld every dusk what turning will you take to escape leviathan’s coils
• veer west from the m4 junction at west drayton and head towards slough
• take the a13 north of dartford and drive into london’s east end
