Recycled
- a water poem

The water you are about to drink
Deserves a second thought, I think;
For Avogadro, oceans, and those you follow
Are all involved in every swallow.

The molecules of water in a single glass
In number at least, five times out-class
The glasses of water in stream and sea,
Or wherever else that water can be.

The water you're about to taste
No doubt represents a bit of the waste
From prehistoric beast and bird,
A notion not at all absurd.

The water in you is between a' betwixt
And having traversed you is thoroughly mixed;
So someone slaking a future thirst
Could easily drink what you drank first.

The fountains spraying in the park
Distribute bits from Joan of Ark
And Adam, Eve, and all their kin;
You'd be surprised where your drink has been.

The water you cannot retain
Will some day hence return as rain,
Or be beheld as the purest dew,
Though long ago it passed through you.

Dr Verne N. Rockcastle