A drip, a drop, a droplet dribbled from a low-lying cloud
Tumbled down to earth and landed upon high ground
Found another similar and joined with a splosh
A splash turned into a stream and slipped down the hillside
Gathered speed and size and formed the roots of a river
A rivulet, a beck, a babbling brook, a crook, a creak, a crick
A tributary that tumbled on and on in a torrent of water
That flowed further and further till it couldn’t be stopped
Land-locked and nowhere to go it made a puddle which formed a pond
That leaked and slinked then slithered through the grass
Like the turns of a sea-snake till it spread into a lake
A loch, a lagoon, a pool of salt water that fed into an estuary
On the edge of the sea. It crashed into a current
And the tide came in and pulled it under, pushed it out to open water
Where it dunked and dived and swam then surfaced like a whale
Made a wave on the water then bubbled and boiled over
With foam and fish and froth and spat them onto the sand
Like a shipwreck on the rocks.
Held it's breath and went under again and sank
Like an anchor to the bottom of the sea, the bottomless bowl of brine
And swam amongst a shoal, a school of fish, then a starfish, a swordfish and a stingray swam by
Bobbed past a jellyfish and dodged a slippery eel
And avoided the eyes of a giant squid that could see in the dark
Then slipped past the teeth of a shark as it sunk deeper and deeper
Into the quiet depths of deep blue, black, navy, aquamarine
Saw a submarine, a ghost ship, a galleon from a bygone era with the ancient soul of a sailor forever trapped in the rusting belly of a boat, seemingly afloat on the seabed's skin.
Discovered a treasure chest and climbed in
Amongst the gold and the gems and the jewels that only fools would cross the sea for.
On the seafloor it stopped and at last was at one with the sea.
Among the corals and clams it finally laid
And fell asleep in a shell that had once belonged to a mermaid.
