25,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 - Gregory White

[Larry Robinson]


25,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
 
Do the math.
 
My dad’s last breath had
25 sextillion molecules,
all types.
 
Each breath you and I breathe
has as least one used molecule
emigrated from the lungs of
every human, alive
or dead.
 
Not to mention from every
hippo and eagle and sloth.
 
I watch for molecules I
borrow for a few seconds
from Jesus,
or Socrates,
or Buddha,
and yes from Hitler
and Cleopatra and
Rudyard Kipling and
Mary Magdalene
and the first Greek athlete to
win in the first Olympics,
776 B.C.
 
And for that last molecule
donated by my dad to me,
sitting by him,
when he died.
 
       - Gregory White
 




"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
    - Wendell Berry