'Tunnel in One Act'

I spy the tunnel's under tow

a blank white space alone

to travel through many layers

far in a dimension unknown

To tell my story is frightful

it's mingled with many tears

from a dark damp place I heard

voices scream with countless fears

"Alright" I said "carry me to the antechamber deep below

hence lift me back with gentleness

from the swiftness of your flow"

Do you guess whom I speak of

are you familiar with her woes?

she awoke me early this evening

entangled struggling with foes

Distressed with twisted madness

she spoke "I will not sustain

his need to use me for industry trade nor incorrigible gain"

Then I heard a simple answer

to the puzzle here at hand

I had to make agreements an

amendment a vow with the land

I received the farmer's permission

I gazed along the water's edge

I checked with old friends nearby

to verify the dredge

To re-create an inventive tunnel

for use in and out of season

I traveled to the forth dimension through time and for a reason

Disguised with ease and simplicity

I followed its natural design

too obvious for men to perceive

no threat and surely benign

I spied the tunnel's under tow

I had to shout to pray out loud

talking to the River out there

is like juggling inside a crowd

Indigenous were the Creatures who spoke with words well timed

underneath there buried where

men fear to be confined

Seen through a glass darkly

a window not nearly known

there in a courtroom drama

they deemed "No more loans"

On this well set stage abruptly

to accomplish a hidden crime

lying lips sealed with money appeared like oxidized grime

Creatures were the Indigenous

each one born from no thing

on a wave I sat aghast to see

her writhing and frothing

Her madness took me further below the sand to let me feel

the results of deeper dredging

she said "was to banish every keel"

From man's ships she pronounced

"their greed was her daily trouble"

her swelling channels bore the evidence of "all their filthy rubble"

"I am sick and feeling poorly

can you not see my demise?

I ask you to choose wisely and please no ships gargantua size!

Let no LNG or jet fuel vapours

disperse fumes and pollution

for surely you will see the day

my anger: will be the solution"

Legends were the Indigenous there they pointed to a door

I nodded as the current came

generously from the River floor

"Oh lift me back up swiftly

with sand from under tow"

I saw blue sky appear

as I was greeted by her flow

'Tunnel in One Act' is not done

it awaits to see the appeal

of women who like bullies

their true colours do reveal

Tangled up in ailing commerce

and a dying economy

eyes do not see nor ears hear

the reason of sound geology

Indigenous were the Legends

and the surest way to find

wisdom from the River and

Ocean is to befriend their kind

It was late into the evening

my eyes now heavy with I sorrow

I brushed the sand and salt away

to see the seaweed I did borrow

I saw an underworld in tumult

with despair I tell this tale

that a power stolen and traded

will make British Columbia frail