Aquamarine

A poem on a color

This poem came to me when I was sitting on the rocks near a wharf off water street in Port Townsend. I had climbed down off the sidewalk and found a spot where kids hang out and tag. It’s a quiet place but some other person came with a notebook and started sketching. She kept looking toward at me, and I wonder if I made it in the drawing.

I’ve been out on my bike recently, and the color of the sky and water is almost unbelievable. I’ve started to notice things again, my sense of smell has begun to return, my mind feels clearer. I get headaches now and then, still sleep strangely, often feel like crying or angry out of place, and often the urges almost overcome me. But I am not going to give up.

Thank you for reading & listening.

AQUAMARINE

The water blue,
no, green —     offshore glistens
The wind • • • in fits & starts
traces low along the surface.
Creosote pillars
sunk deep in, braced, kept
stable by toxcicity — nooks
where life still lives
despite
heavy - metals - pain.

Imperfectness, imperfection, needless
ease, persistence of the tides,
wind on the water and —
look, be open — and the view
becomes
                 so wide.