Nechako Diversion

 The river is silent, the waters almost gone

It’s making aluminum in a distant town

The energy diverted

the  lifeblood  gone astray

and the economic interests are keeping it that way

Alcan takes over half now, has a license to take more

the river defenders are getting tired and wore

They won’t sit around a table

pretend that it’s alright

that KCP is over or that they won the fight

The Nechako has not been saved, let me tell you that

Alcan owns nine tenths of her  and all that holds them back

Is the need to save some water

For it’s a salmons lot

to turn belly up and perish if the water gets too hot

When the heads come out of the sand and see what really happened

How proud are we going to be of all this inaction

We know who will benefit

when the salmon are all gone

Then will there be any reason for a river to live on?

Don’t they read the fine print, don’t they know it will get worse?

Politicians have betrayed us and all we can do is curse!

Can’t rivers live forever

is there nothing we won’t wreck

can we rely on Mother Earth to put the river back?

There could be a natural disaster, a tunnel sealing shake

She could make a small earthquake, drop the coastline, save the lake

Let her sink the turbines

to the bottom of the sea

Let her drown Kemano and set the river free

Life never really ends, so please don’t take this personal

We’re kinda sad that a curse is all that’s in our arsenal

What else can we do

and still keep our sense of humour

Seems like a simple way to finally make it over

Will we ever have enough aluminum to simply start reusing it

Or maybe even wiser we could just start refusing it

Or do we love aluminum

enough to pay the cost

of rivers mismanaged and other values lost?

Janet Romain

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