Very famous and well known indeed,
is Chlorine the halogenide.
A gas of very high reacitivty,
an alchemists tool of certain mistery.

As a very common element in salt,
it was set free more default,
Through its high reactivity,
it affects our world substancially,

Chlorine, means pale green,
the colour of the gas seen.
Scheele was credited with discovery,
but to be clear on scientific credibility.

He was not right, as the effect of the gas,
was described among arabic alchemist stars.
Abu Bakr al-Razi and Jabir ibn Hayyan,
described what Salammoniac can,

Nowadays known as ammonium chloride,
but they had no fancy lab equipment at their side.
Jean Baptiste von Helmont described the „air“,
with brilliance and care.

Sir Humphry Davy could prove Chlorine to be an element,
so him, not Scheele, had the right interpretation of the experiment.
With that clarified,
what is now with Chlorine mystified?

Together with Sodium it forms table salt,
so it is to a good share chlorines fault,
how the ocean and the sea taste,
from water from the mountains erased.

Salt is one of the first trading good,
to preserve highly valuable food,
A basic ingredient in our life,
a highly appreciated spice.

Among this well known component,
Chlorine is in over fifteenthousand differnt,
from plastics, to other salts to acid,
forming gas, solid and fluid.

Hydrochloric acid helps us digest food,
so it is as such an element understood,
that it is mandatory for life and body function,
over and underdose leading to malfunction.

As pure element it is toxic and hazardous,
a real threat an danger to us,
in its pure form it is very active,
and amongst most things reactive.

Causing corrosion of steel,
chlorine media are a maintenance deal.
Oxidizing and electronegative,
it becomes various and creative.

Chlorine, essential to us every day,
maintaining life and decay,
as salt former part of worlds creation,
full of wonder and variation.