Post - URBAN WILDLAND

The slightly warm water that came out
Of my bathroom sink faucet this morning
May have dated back to the Ice Age
Gripping North America 300,000 years ago.

It would have melted sometime in the next
Interglacial and formed a part of what we
Now call the Koenigstein Aquifer; it was then
Refreshed by subsequent cycles of glaciation…

Until the last great melting 11,000 years ago
And, to some small extent, by seasonal rainfall.
We enjoy the water, but fresh from the tap
It is currently a little tepid.

Stored in a steel tank that remains warm
To the touch after autumnal heat waves
it originates interstitially in a lithic substrate of
Limestone and shale and collects in a well.

Driven by a submerged pump to off-site
Plastic storage tanks it returns by gravity into
Our 2,500-gallon tank – a mile-long journey
Up and downhill after its passage through time.

It serves the usual prosaic requirements
Of bathing, cooking, flushing - and filling
The pool during the long hot summer
Where we ponder the triviality of our lives.