Duality of the Universal Solvent

Burning, freezing, melting, cold and hot and tepid,

                Rolling, falling, rising, rushing, pounding, dripping, slithering.

                                One drop is tiny, insignificant.

                Yet it is these drops that level stone, drown man and beast, and wear down mountains.

Always moving, completely placid.

                Life-giving, life-taking

                                The great and terrible beneficial destroyer.

                Colorless material of the rainbow.

Deep and shallow, it takes any shape but has none itself.

                Cloud and sky. lake and stream, man and ice and steam.

                                The river’s song, the melody of the pond sings and rushes and roars, gentle and powerful.

                Tsunami and rain droplet are the same, yet so very different.

Two-thirds of Earth’s surface, three-quarters of humanity.

This is the dichotomy of water.