Staff of life that gave Wycombe its name,
Drawing Britons and Saxons to live by it.
In 1965, the council built a road over it.
Rising in Radnage, it flows east –
Feeding the glorious water features where the Dashwoods sit.
In 1965, the council built a road over it.
From the Domesday Book to the 1970s,
Corn mills, cloth-fulling mills, sawmills and papermills were powered by it.
In 1965, the council built a road over it.
When furniture production boomed and cramped houses had no loos –
It carried away the chairmakers’ shit.
In 1965, the council built a road over it.
The small but mighty, ten-mile River Wye.
I remember feeding the ducks from the pavement by it.
In 1965, the council built a road over it.
Now I volunteer to help the unloved Wye to flow.
People still throw rubbish in it.
Which is why, in 1965, the council could build a road over it.
