THE STORY OF WATER

PREMBLE

What am I?      

You are a water baby my dear

Where do I come from?

That’s a long story

Please tell me!

Okay . . . Hmm

INTRODUCTION

This is the story of heaven and earth

The story of life of death and rebirth

It’s the story of you, It’s the story of me

It’s the story of nature and all history

It’s the heartwarming story of hot meeting cold

It’s the most wonderful story that’s ever been told 

It’s the story of water, the liquid solution

The matrix of life that drives evolution

The drop and the ocean 

The splash and the stream

The ultimate solvent

The well in our being

WATER

This story began a long time ago

Around a sun with a planet where water could flow 

In the Goldilocks’s zone, with an orbit ‘just right’

Water formed liquid and gave rise to life

It started with ice crystals hurling through space

Flung through the cold from a far distant place

Colliding with water in super-hot form

Swirling in magma on a planet being born

Hot lava and ice burst into the sky

Jets of fire and steam rose ten thousand feet high 

Yet gravity stopped it escaping to space

And the earth’s atmosphere simply fell into place

Then the earth’s molten core spun a protective shield

That blocked cosmic rays with its magnetic field

And as the world became cloudy water spread all around

Moving between the sky and the ground

Then, for the very first time, on an uncertain date

Hot mixed with cold in the warm liquid state

And as steam cooled to droplets they rained from the sky

For thousands of years no place was left dry

Water covered the earth and soaked into the ground

Hot water welled up, cool water rained down

And as cold water sank to the deep ocean floor

It met vents of hot water laden with ore

Then under great pressure and with a sulphorous smell

Warm water became ‘Intelligent gel’

Liquid chemistry cooked up organic goop

Feeding the oceans primordial soup

Around pieces of clay

Water held in-form-ation

Birthed function and form

It was life’s first creation

PROKARYOTES

The beginning of life cast a magical spell

That sparked evolution of intelligent gel  

Inside living gel purred molecular engines

Catalyzing reactionstoo many to mention

Surfing entropy gradients life sought out light

Making sugars and fats when conditions were right

 Then when things got all gooey intelligent gel

Used lipid-bound membranes to form the first cell

And as electrons flowed down life’s energy chain

Cells copied themselves and did it again

 Then using light from the sun CO2 from the air

Bluegreen algae evolved and bloomed everywhere

Life’s oxygen factories rusted the seas

Then aerated the skies with a reactive breeze

For billions of years algae bubbled away

Producing the O2 we still breathe today

Creating our air reacting with stone

Filtering sunlight through screens of ozone 

And at one point it seems the whole world got cold

Most living things died ice sheets took hold

Yet, intelligent gel in the cell didn’t freeze

It gathered resources with salt from the seas

 Intelligent gel put on layers of fat

Membranes within membranes that’s where it sat

A spiral bound library of life’s information

Directed combustion and controlled respiration

 Through creation of water and production of heat

Gel dwelt in warm places where hot and cold meet

And seeking out warmth on an ongoing basis

Cells learnt to maintain thermal homeostasis

INVERTEBRATES - EUKARYOTES

Then tucked inside membranes small cells within cells

Took on special jobs and became organelles 

To repair, replenish reuse and recycle

Absorb, excrete and assist with survival

These miniature organs bred cellular wisdom

And followed a code to grow life’s ecosystem 

Working together in true symbiosis

Organelles channeled energy and fueled cell mitosis

Evolving in time by natural selection

Eukaryotes thrived on interconnection 

And when colonies formed they invented new ways

To connect and adapt and to share DNA

The struggle for life then became more complex

As this naturally led to reproduction by sex 

Now sex is outrageous it creates a commotion

Igniting a complex organic explosion

From slime molds to sponges jellies to worms

Life took on many shapes, sizes, and forms

And gel remained safe gel strived to stay well

Inside countless creatures encased within shell
‍ ‍

From gels to cells to organelles, sexual cells and shells

Life spread over planet earth riding ocean swells 

Till insects grew both legs and wings to roam the land and skies

While mollusks prowled deep ocean depths with pattern finding eyes 

Gel did quite well inside shell on land and sea and sky

With flies and fleas, beetles, bees, ants and butterfly 

Lice and crabs and termites starfish, spiders, crays,

Oysters, clams and barnacles all used shells in different ways

As a home, shield, or antenna,

Pincers, teeth, or jaws

Shells formed wings and other things,

Like spikes and feet and claws  

CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION

As the world began filling

With more diverse creatures

Intelligent gel

Evolved new improved features

 Becoming bigger and stronger

Faster and brighter

Life’s cycles kept spinning

Farther and wider

To find food and shelter

Seek water and air

Life searched every corner

Explored everywhere 

And as predators hunted

Prey hid or fled

Being fit to survive

Or ending up dead

To be cycled round 

Or laid down as oil

Or digested by fungi

And turned into soil

VERTEBRATES

The struggle to survive

Inspired intricate designs

And some shells became internalized

To form bones and complex spines

With muscles moving skeletons

Jaws and streamlined fins

Fish swam around and feasted on

Shelled crustaceans

Then bigger, faster fish evolved

With fancy fins and tails

Presiding over ancient seas

Wrapped in silver scales

Then to begin to venture onto land

Some fish developed skin

Trading gills for lungs to breathe the air

Become amphibian

Then to leave the sea and walk the earth

And live on land in style

Some beasts grew legs, and laid leathery eggs

To become the first reptile

Then life became a battle

That was red in tooth and claw

Some brutes grew large and ended up

As big as dinosaur

Giant lizards ruled ancient earth

Till a comet cooled the weather

And with the colder spell, intelligent gel

Kept warm in layers of feather

Now downy fluff was just the stuff

To hatch eggs on a mound

Yet where eggs lay made easy prey

Unless safely off the ground

As bones got light, birds took flight

To global destinations

Finding food to eat with beaks and feet

And seasonal migrations

Then mammals scurried over land

To where the wild things were

And gave live birth and roamed the earth

In coats they made of fur

With furry skin to keep heat in

On land or sea or air

Mammals carried their placenta

And travelled everywhere

Still, keeping warm from dusk till dawn

Built quite an appetite

So, with milk to eat, on padded feet

Mammals searched for food at night

The most curious of all mammals

Perhaps the wisest of the bunch

Humans made up rules, fashioned clothes, and tools

And used fire to cook their lunch

With tools in hand, humans roamed the land

Gathering seeds and hunting game

Following the seasons

To places they could tame

With hearth of stone, humans made their home

And kept their home fires burning

In places where, there was food to share

People kept returning

And inside every person

There is a tale to tell

Of the miracle of water

And the intelligence of gel

And while this is just a story

And no-one knows what’s really true

It’s the story of where you came from

And how water became you

Now my little water baby

Let’s have a drink