Walters Dam

By God it’s finally happened

This old dam is done

Two hurricanes is one too many

And now the lake will run

Masonry from 1929

Finally giving way

Been leaking for years now

We’ve been waiting for the day

Slowly a seam widened

Then a gaping whole

Out came the life-blood

Water black as coal

They tried to open all the gates

But Walters wasn’t built for this

A hundred thousand CFS

Is coming and won’t miss

So pack it up in Hartford

I hear the sirens howl

Scramble up the hollers

Only eight minutes now

Ninety feet of boiling torrent

Hauling down the gorge

Rolling boulders like marbles

So much for rafting tours

The Pigeon now a raptor

Consuming all downstream

Meanest rapids on earth

A nightmare, not a dream.

Only man could have so erred

Failure was always this fate

We sought to stop the floods

But they will always inundate.