Baptism

Another narrative poem from childhood.

Blue!

 

It is everywhere

It is the sky’s vestments over

The water’s big iris below

And the skin of the foam thing that keeps me

Balanced between them

  It is the hue I call my favorite

 

And when my sight sheaths itself to night

There it is again!

The Aryan staring me down, down

Imbuing his allure

His vampire glare azure and magnetic

And then I too subsume

 

To that shroud that clings wet and heavy

Baby, baby blue the swaddling

Wrapped around like a cocoon

I cannot fly yet!

My small arms waving through

Reaching back to the firmament

Helios looks down as he drowns out

From me

 

The world muffles and snuffs out

As the lungs recall their first failure

The prelude to conclusion

And there my body suspended   frozen

My cerulean hands outstretched reaching for brother

On the other side of the stagnant world

 

But angry Poseidon has already won

Burning as I breathe this thickening sky

Replacing air

From aquamarine again to night

I think I see the Nazarene

As I sink, a submarine, and become one

With this beautiful thing

 

But then it’s over in a gasp
From Icarus to Lazarus

Pulled up from the ocean of chlorine

I hear screaming, it is mother

Then it’s brother holding me
Offering me back to this life
To this hot new air that claims me again

  I am blue

Author's Note

I'm not sure I like the ending, I'll probably change it.