Poem For UA

Why is a river needed? you ask.
Why do we need to eat? you might say.
Well, since this assignment is my task,
I will try to find a way.
The Salzach River, Two-hundred twenty-five kilometers long,
Beautiful, and clear, and clean,
The current is quite strong,
And all the plants it can make green.
The Celts, so very, very long ago,
Used it as their trading route.
The Romans followed too its flow,
Using it for long commutes.
White gold, they say, in longing tones, is salt.
It made the city rich.
It made the poor exalt.
It made the wealthy twitch.
Without the river, diverted through,
The dream of white gold would not come true.
Without its shining, flowing tides,
All thoughts of riches would only have dried.
Many animals live in there,
Unmolested by pollution.
In the 70s, it was almost despair,
But today, they have thankfully found a solution.
Flooding, however, can be quite a pain.
All the old buildings underwater—oh, no!
They built high walls the water to contain,
So now the waters aren’t quite such a blow.
Although water is quite dangerous,
It isn’t, in this case, all traitorous.
The Salzach River: flow ever, ever on,
Even after I have come and gone...


(I wrote it this way to disguise the fact that I really didn't know anything about the river. Mwahaha.)