Blue

The sky is blue

such an obvious statement

but in the desert the universe

   is summed up by

   blue and not-blue.

the earth floats in a bowl of blue

My eye follows the ridge line

   trying to find any sign,

   any blur where the hills start

   to exchange their chocolate brown

   for the mantle of blue

the edge is a razor

   it is one or the other, blue or not-blue

I cannot look at that edge

   and breathe at the same time.

A scientist who says that blue is

   a certain wave length of light

   has not been to the desert

if you think my shirt is blue,

if you think her eyes are blue,

   you have not been to the desert

Anything that you can imagine

   is not-blue

my life, my body, my history

   is not-blue

I cannot conceive of blue

but there it is ….