What I learned from The Terminator

             is that not all melted states of matter 
are familiar or benign. Though water
              takes on the shape of its container,
there is no mistaking an ice 
             cube in the shape of a penguin 
or a fish, from one like the Death 
             Star. You can snap plastic molds
around watermelons and apples, 
             pears and peaches—the fruits grow
and take on the shape of squares or
            hearts or baby buddhas, whose soft,
sweet bellies you can bite into 
            for anywhere from $9 to $200.
The human body is 60 per cent water:
            plasma in the blood is mostly 
water; the brain, lungs, and heart are
            in part composed of water. The gel-
like cushion between joints, even 
            the bones, are infused with water.
But the shapeshifting T-1000 android
            manipulates its mimetic polyalloys,
oozing through the smallest openings
            to take on human and other likenesses.
It's a shame, really, that it isn't interested in 
            your hydration or regulating your body 
temperature or flushing out toxins accumulated
           from long years of overindulgence: caffeine 
and carbohydrates, cheese, red meat, wine,
           deep-fried pork belly. It's a pity you can't
pull all the body's hidden suffering, shape it
           into a ball of metal and lob it into a cauldron,
where at last it's subsumed by unbearable heat.

 


        "Water is simple enough, but not too simple. This means 
that one possibility for explaining the apparent extra phase 
of water is that it behaves a little bit like a liquid crystal."
                                                         ~ Smithsonian Magazine, 2016