Alberto Cavaliere
H2O famosa formula della sostanza che al mondo trovasi più in abbondanza

Mr. Electron: "Did you know that chemistry in verse can be fascinating and stimulating?"

Mr. Proton: "Chemistry in verse? Come on, you must be joking, and as usual, you are mocking me!"

Mr. Electron: "I assure you, I don’t want to jest, and if you listen, I know how to demonstrate it."

Mr. Proton: "Alright, I accept the invitation, start the story, you have my full attention."

"As a young student, bizarre and erratic, I never got along with lead and bismuth. Even vital oxygen suffocated me; sodium, for a bitter fate, always rhymed with hatred. Chlorine stifled me strongly at school, before it did in war; perhaps even gold, in chemistry, annoyed me. And of the entire series so numerous and varied of bodies and elements, only the air pleased me. The air of the fields, free, in the beautiful month of July: until they taught me that it was a mixture too! An old bearded professor, on whose crusty face never passed the shadow of a smile, a revived Faust, wanted at all costs to know from me the formula of a famous compound. I knew no formulas other than this one: H₂O; and this I said: the brute, of course, failed me.

Then, as it grew even more arid in the summer heat, I endeavored to make chemistry more lively. Hence, translated into verses, I learned it all by heart, and in verse, in October, I responded to that sage. A great miracle occurred: that maniacal soul, who saw nothing beyond ammonia, sulfuric acid, lead and cyanide, laughed, for once, and approved of me: I swear it!

I was flattered by that fact: I wanted to be an artist, and instead, without realizing, I became an alchemist... Today I distill and remain silent in a laboratory, where life has all the air of a mortuary. And I see, deep down, given that I don't know gold, given that chlorine still suffocates me, still relentless, that I was not wrong, and my thought doesn’t vary: the best thing, friends, is air, air, air...". _{(Alberto Cavaliere)}

Mr. Proton: "But then it's all true, I apologize friend, I thought you were joking, that's why I didn't believe you!"

Mr. Electron: "You acted like Saint Thomas, but now you understand, I was speaking seriously, and I would never mock you!"

Mr. Proton: "So this book is a concentration of originality, and a blend of creativity!"

Mr. Electron: "Certainly, you find a bit of everything: from fluorine (F) to gold (Au), from hydrogen (H) to oxygen (O), from hydrochloric acid (HCl) to hydrofluoric acid (HF), from benzene (C₆H₆) to toluene (C₆H₈)... The subject is difficult and important, but this original book is quite ingenious. Written in distilled rhymes, it turns out to be intriguing, so even chemistry is not bad at all. Cavaliere wrote the work as a young man in reaction to a failed exam, and it was thus that he revealed his nature. As a politician he was ousted, he was marginalized for poetry, but he always remained an enlightened poet."

Mr. Proton: "From what you explain to me, know-it-all brainiac, I feel more important than a simple proton. It seems I'm everything, multiple elements that form the components of my human body."

Mr. Electron: "Let’s not boast, diligent friend, let’s look in the mirror, thinking sweetly. In what I see in this human body, WATER is largely what we are."

Mr. Proton: "I must agree with you, adventure companion, but a rhyme is missing for our future hours."

Cavaliere, fearing nothing, wrote a small dedication: "To Engineer Pomilio, who, having me in his establishment, nearly went bankrupt, preparing soda with my aid."

Regards Ketones ©.