Number 5 in my series, ‘I hear the river laugh.’

 Drilling down

Ever narrower now, energy building, 

Sluicing water upwards, roaring over mudflats, 

Through to Goole, swamping the Ouse and Trent, 

Removing ten thousand years 

Of post-glacial civilisation. 

York and Venice cannot be saved, 

By Tidal Barriers. 

Profits rise with the water 

Until drilling down means holding on 

Against the soaring tides 

And strengthening winds. 

And as the storms merge, 

We ask, ‘What now?’