From vessel to vessel
Through a funnel’s cone
From stillness to stillness
Through the vortex of being
It is decreed from above
From a narrow or a wide
Diameter of the neck —
In a gush or step by step
They plan the merging.

From cistern to barrel, from barrel to bucket,
And then into a jar, a carafe, and a bottle —
It poured,
It strained,
It filtered, it flowed:
Somewhere it was FREE,
And somewhere taut.

At last into a glass, and from it to the throat,
From the body’s core through kidneys and to the pores…
The overflowings of essence only change their form,
So that into the cistern again
A motor would pump it.