A Recipe for Sea Water

Over a bed of sand
To 105 parts (cold) of H20
Add 10 parts (dry) of NaCl
And 1 part each of KCl
And MgCl2. With a trace
Of other halides stir and place
In a lunar centrifuge. Shake well.

The mixture you now have is brine
Subject to algination, brackish
And will not keep –

And now the secret ingredient
– Essential to convey to the taste
A concentrated solar solution
And make it, in the lash’s fringe
Double diffractive, and to raise
Glistening to an art –

Proceed as follows:
Add, in unlimited quantities, the Past. 

from Law and Impulse: Maths and Chemistry Poems (2010). By permission of The Poets Union and John Watson

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