The biology teacher said that people, all people, are made mostly of water. . And I understood that all of us, like water, have been through so much: fell from the sky.. spent nights in the middle of a dark ocean.. cleaned dirt out of clothes and dishes of all kinds.. had to freeze in winters and simmer under covers, and be put in cubes and hit countless times on kitchen counters.. And I understood why when someone’s tears fall I feel . . .
Note: A Poem Made of Water" was written on a plane, after a conversation with a friend, and was first performed at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC, March 2009. It has been read to many audiences around the world, and is printed in the poetry-and-art anthology INTERPRETATIONS, by the Columbia Art League, 2013. Photo is by Ibtisam Barakat, of Stephens Lake, Columbia, Missouri.