Daughter River

Dear Daughter River
How different you seem
What happened on your journey down
To meet your Father Sea?
You were once so full
So lively, so free
Now you barely flow and
Resemble your Sister Stream

They said I was too wild
And therefore must be tamed
Judgement passed, the work began
To cage me up, to be forever dammed

With my flow reduced and banks exposed
I found I was filling again
Not with anything I knew before
With something new, called Man

This man dug deep to move my sides
To make me straight and plane
This is how I thought I'd stay
Until the monsoon came

From your sides, Mother Mountain
Came rain for three full days
The deluge jumped my bars
To cover land beyond my banks

My flooded sides finally drained
And Man came back to me
He found his land beaten and torn
Many precious things swept to sea

Building began again, "Stronger", "Higher"
Were the things cried for
So this is why, Mother Mountain
I am your River no more