One drop of rain
Contains millions of separate
And also merged
Molecules of hydrogen and oxygen
Gases we cannot see or feel
Combined to make a substance
No life on earth can live without
And like those elements
We are here joined together
As molecules and drops of hydrogen and oxygen
Wet and liquid inside our sweat, tears, and blood
Hard and frozen, brittle as ice,
Rising as steam and fog
Lifted to the heavens
Fallen back to earth
Never created
Never destroyed
Only changed and transformed
Always water
Inside our eggs, water
Inside our sperm, water
Inside the promise of the future
Water
Drunk by the roots of plants
To rise in the veins of trees
Where it is sweetened.
Water falling into the lake
Water rushing over the dam
Over rocks and pebbles for one hundred miles
Entering the great ocean
Floating across the sea to China
Drunk by giant seaweed
Nibbled at by small fish
Eaten by a larger fish
Caught by a fisherman
Served to his children
Taken into their bloodstreams
Urinated into a sewer in Shanghai
Risen up into the heavens
Falling again onto the earth
We breathe in one another
Like drops of water
Absorbed by the human soil
Drawn up through our human roots
Up through our veins
Sweetened
Released into the air
Lifted high into the heavens
Soon to fall again to earth
Somewhere still unknown
Still water
Loving being a part of us
Immensely happy to be here
Washing bowls and plates
Made into thin soup
Aide to the silent kitchen crew
Aide to the walking meditators
Held here, home here
Illuminated here
Part of the sangha assembly here
Part of you
As you are part of me
Walking together
Doing good deeds
In war and peace
Manifest in our shared breaths and blood
Our shared Buddhahood
One drop of water