Small Angry River

Not in flood, not raging at the houses
Along its shores, the way floods in the news
Seem to have it in for handsome houses,

Since large mansions collapsing in brown waves
Are what people want to see, the drama
Of the enviable homes washed away,

But quietly seething, plotting revenge,
Like the Scamander cursing Achilles,
Thin river angered by its helplessness,

The pretty little stream cut to ditches,
Stuck with lengths of straw-like pipes that drained it,
Consciousness swore it would alter the world

Beyond its banks that siphoned it to death
But all it could do was fall where it fell.