Eternal Droplet

A Reflective Poem on Time and Change

From cosmic depths, a comet's frozen heart

Pierced Earth's molten veil with ancient grace,

Released its burden to the churning dark—

A single molecule, destined to trace

The story of a world yet to emerge.

Suspended in the turbulent young air,

This quantum of existence danced and swirled,

Until the cooling heavens bid it fare

Downward to the primordial seas unfurled,

Where continents were born in fire and steam.

Four billion years past, this drop became

Life's first messenger, consumed within

The simple forms that learned to tame

The sun's raw power, releasing oxygen

That turned the skies from copper-red to blue.

Through countless deaths of stars and birth of stones,

It rose and fell in nature's endless tide,

Watched reptiles claim their prehistoric thrones,

Then perish as the mammals learned to ride

The changing winds of evolution's dream.

In glacier's grip, it slept in frozen time,

Then broke free as the warming currents called,

Carved valleys deep and mountains sublime,

Witnessed empires rise and kingdoms fall,

Each cycle adding to its ancient tale.

Through steam of progress, rivers of decree,

It served the dreams of humankind's ascent,

Carried whispers of history to sea,

Each cycle skyward bearing what was spent

In mankind's brief but transformative reign.

And now, upon this dawn-kissed autumn leaf,

This traveller rests, a mirror to the world,

Reflecting back four billion years of grief

And glory, in one droplet tightly curled—

A cosmos in a sphere of morning light.

In an age when poetry and science are often seen as separate domains, this poem, "Eternal Droplet" seeks to remind us that wonder can belong to both. The poem takes as its premise something I thought was perhaps impossibly ambitious: to tell the entire story of our planet through the journey of a single molecule of water.

I have tried to turn what could have been merely an exercise in scientific versification into something more profound—a meditation on time, change, and our place within the vast narrative of existence. I invite you to see through the "eyes" of this ancient traveller, to witness the birth of continents, the first stirrings of life, the rise and fall of species, and the brief but momentous appearance of humanity.

The poem asks us to consider what endures and what passes away, what connects us to the deepest history of our world, and how the most ordinary elements around us—a dewdrop, a breath of steam, a tear—carry within them stories older than memory. In our current moment of environmental crisis, such perspective feels not merely poetic but essential.

A real drop of water, suspended from a leaf approaching the end of its life cycle yet resilient enough to carry the weight of a 'traveller' on an epic journey, invoked this poem during a walk on an autumn morning in 2023.