THE SHAPE OF WATER

Diamond drops, tears, dew, storms,

all held together, cell to cell,

 by hydrogen bonds

 - and by frost and fire:

essentially freeborn, time-free

stored in air and earth;

in corporeal life-forms of Allsorts:

sap, sweat, blood undifferentiated,

virtually sizeless -

weight and gravity it’s plum-line.

Give it a shape to occupy!

A river-bed, an ocean floor,

an upland bog, lake, swamp or spring:

frozen in icebergs, glaciers and snow;

saved in water-butts, tanks, buckets and troughs,

as well as irrigation ditches and drains,

 paddy fields, canals, pools and ponds -

besides mugs, glass-ware, vases

and bottles:

stored in baobab trees, on petals, in cupped hands, in living creatures…

those are its’ containers -

60% of human body-mass, at least.