December 2003

ISSN: 1076-7975

What do you think

by Leszek Czuchajowski
(translated from Polish)

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What do you think-

should we scare people
and tell them all the truth?
Should we tell them they will all perish
if we, water molecules, decide to
straighten ourselves out
instead of being bent over like a cripple?
Would they understand that such an event would
prevent us from attracting each other
and we would spread all over as a gas
leaving them just as air
sputters from a tank
so they would be left flat
with their noses pressed to the ground?
We could indeed say this to them
but they-people-are so arrogant
that they would refuse to believe
that so much depends upon us
small molecules of water.

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Leszek Czuchajowski leszek@uidaho.edu is a chemistry professor at the University of Idaho.

"What do you think" is from the collection of poems titled Molecules, Women, Gods and published by the Plus Publishing, Krakow, Poland, in  2002.

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