Aqua Vitae
by Deborah L. Davitt

Water everywhere,

water in abundance—

but deuterium comets didn’t

feed Earth’s hungry oceans,

where all our life was born;

their ice is alien to us.

 

Be careful when you drink

the first melts from the shadows

of Mercury’s craters;

all the reverse osmotic processes

should remove the heavy metals

from its ever-shrinking crust,

but who knows might slip through—

 

be cautious when you sip

from a cup prepared

on Enceladus;

prions there

have been known

to tangle the proteins

of our brains—

 

no, not tangle, tango

as they spin us into

some new version of ourselves;

it’s not insanity,

just an environment shaping us

as we adapt to it,

 

as we drink the water of life

from the hearts of our new worlds.