Water Alchemy, by Susan J. Wurtzburg

Posthumous Portrait of Thales of Miletus, by Wilhelm Meyer (Sweden) 1875

Water Alchemy
 
Shrapnel-shot nocturnal heavens,
earth-felled marveling man, 
Greek stargazer, Thales of Miletus.
Anonymous admired author, words winnowed 
by famed philosophical pundits,
frequently first: solstice suppositions, geometry’s angler,
Egyptian explorer, measurer of pyramidic peaks,
Aristotle’s antecedent.
Trampler of traditions: all is water, moist metamorphosis,
origin of opals, oleander, oxen, myriad matter.
Supremacy of seas, springs, straits, sounds, and soggy swamplands,
symphony of splash, swoosh, and splutter,
soundtrack to sentience.

Susan J. Wurtzburg
 
Susan J. Wurtzburg, a former academic, received first place in the Land of Enchantment Award (National Federation of State Poetry Societies), and the Save Our Earth Award (NFSPS), 2024, and was a semi-finalist in the Crab Creek Review’s Poetry Competition, 2022, and the Naugatuck River Review's Narrative Poetry Contest, 2022. Wurtzburg is an Associate Poetry Editor: Poets Reading the News. Her poetry book, Ravenous Words, with Lisa Lucas will appear in spring, 2025.