The wave in the watering can

 The wave in the watering can


I stuffed a hose

into the big opening

at the top of the container

the water rising higher

than the opening to the spout

with the can at rest on level ground

on this hot summer day


And then I walked 

steadily along the driveway

handle in hand

watering can dangling at my side

creating a one per second spill

of consistent volume 

upon the hot asphalt

along a curvilinear trajectory

in a world I could see

reflecting precisely the presence 

of an invisible wave

my movement had created in a bucket


The spill stopped on the uphill slope

the invisible wave continuing

but its energy now insufficient

to enable water to reach the spout

and spill onto the blacktop


When I stopped to water the flowers

the wave collapsed 

the source of its energy having dissipated


The still water was drained away

transferred to the soil

and then the roots

on an alternate journey to the sky

while the wet spots on the driveway

dried up quickly in the sun


Those particular water molecules

are now part of the atmosphere

in which we all live and breathe 

on the surface of the earth


There are a myriad of places each one

of those water molecules might go

an incalculable number of ways

that they may separate from each other

a range of possibilities

unimaginably huge but not infinite


What exactly happens

to this one or that

is irrelevant in any particular circumstance


Each isolated molecule 

is a bit of information


If I knew everything

if I was all knowing

I would know exactly where 

each one was

but soon be drowned

by useless information


Knowledge is a fungible aspect

of the human ability to understand

the more of which we do

the more simple everything becomes


We are the animals

which observe and think and plan

and test and do and think again 

and understand more

and share our understanding 

with all other beings with similar brains

to an extent to which

no other animals on earth are capable


Our potential to create together

is truly infinite


We occupy a multiplicity of paths

on our collective journey toward

a theory of everything


Whether we ever get there is irrelevant


The end of time is predictable



Aubrey Lieberman 

8/26/22

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