The Fairest of Rivers by Ann Reader

I started life high in the mountains 

The air was so fresh and so clear 

I sang as I danced over boulders

My babbling voice you could hear

The skylarks were my companions 

The hares ran close by my banks

Any mess left behind by these creatures 

Was cleansed by the rain’s serried ranks

I am the fairest of rivers 

My waters are fresh and pristine 

I travel a beautiful journey 

My banks they are mossy and green 

But I am affected by where I have been 

Oh please won’t you please keep me clean 

Now I must continue my journey 

I slow myself down on the plain 

Curiously I meander about

Still I am kept clean by the rain 

Soon that is a double edged sword 

Something nasty is washed from the fields

My water is stifled my fish cannot breathe 

Farmers say it increases their yields

I am the fairest of rivers 

My waters are fresh and pristine 

I travel a beautiful journey 

My banks they are mossy and green 

But I am affected by where I have been 

Oh please won’t you please keep me clean.

Then there’s the burgeoning towns

What will I do when I need to flood 

The snow still melts as it always did

But flood plains have gone for good.

Then the waste they put into my water

I think I will die of the shame 

The stench you will smell as I pass

I know it is humans to blame.

I am the fairest of rivers 

My waters were fresh and pristine 

I travel a beautiful journey 

My bank were mossy and green 

But I am affected by where I have been 

Oh please won’t you please keep me clean 

I  move to the end my journey 

I know that I must reach the sea

But with all the shit that I carry

What will she think of me 

I should arrive full of freshness 

My waters sparkling and bright 

But I am taking her poison 

And I know that can not be right.

I was the fairest of rivers 

My water was fresh and pristine 

I travelled a difficult journey 

My banks once were mossy and green 

But I was affected by where I had been 

Oh why could you not keep me clean?