A Sweeping View
Cobbler's Brook starts near the New Hampshire border and runs through the town to the Merrimack River. Years ago, it was tapped as an energy source to power carriage factories. Then the brook and its ponds became dumping grounds, to include sewerage. Now that the sewerage and trash has been mostly cleaned up, it is clogged in numerous places by beavers. It used to run swiftly. Now its pretty stagnant and swampy.

[ Home ]
  Sorry Cobbler’s Brook

  

Plain to see with a simple look

That flowing waters can not rush

Between the banks of Cobbler’s Brook

So choked it is by woven brush.

  

Beavers are not the only cause

For people are equal in blame  

As dams are built by clever paws  

We as caretakers are a shame.

 

For what passes as Walker’s Pond

Is nothing but a crop of weeds  

A fetid pool, with swamp beyond  

Surrounded by a stand of reeds

 

Bedecked by a slimy algae bloom

The water’s surface can’t be seen

Reeking too with the smell of doom

All in all it’s a sorry scene 

 

Despite the looks, the streambed here

Won’t be difficult to restore

It needs its current running clear

As it has had in years before.

 

If the busy critters are done

And waddled on to other streams

A step to help the waters run

Is undoing their latest schemes.

 

Our bridges of cement and rock

Are unsightly, examples poor

We must these culverts too unblock

Along with all the trash they store.

 

When the Brookies can breathe again 

And the swamp looks more like a lake

The brook’ll be beautiful then

And restored for everyone’s sake. 

October 17-19, 1999

 

 

Home