Homage to Longfellow

The water used to have its way with the animals

Now one animal has its way with the water.

Lands that once lied fallow are flooded

From the fertile valleys pumped barren.

Gripped by fear of nature’s unknown,

The early worms engineered their own.

Now the rivers where I’ve lived never reach the sea

And it takes a metal phallus to feed me.

For ease the dam and sew…