HE IS BLUE

For years I wore a paper
Bag over my head.
To cover my blue skin.

They all said the same, 
that I was immaculately covered:

There was him

And then he

And him again. And him too. 

Him.

And him.

And then I saw that one there. 

And him.
He.

And finally, 
Enough.

Earlier in life, when we walked on all fours 

This one came up behind me 

And put me in a house 

And said

“This is as far

As it goes, good one.
Just keep that bag on.”

And he groomed my brown paper

And put me in frames

And stuck me like gum to a fence post. 

My heart dropped from my chest

And my mind fell from an elevator 

Shaft to the base of my spine

And pooled there. 

I kept reaching around

Saying, “Come on up, 

Come on up now.”

I grew tired and

Therefore

Bipedal.

And, 

Once I was up on two feet, 
And could see over the buildings

There were these two dark eyes,
Looking back at me.

He had beautiful pale skin 

and 

Hands like waves and

Tasted salty like the sea.

He showed me an underwater 

World where luminous tentacles 
Glow bright day and night

And wrap around tight.

Stinging with pleasure.

My paper bag disintegrated in water
But he had replacements 
And he continuously 
Covered my head,
One bag after another, 
Until I remembered I wasn't at all 

A fish.

Bipedal.

I moved on through desert

And tracked my way 
By the beat of my heart. 
Trying to remember what 

I had forgotten.

I poked holes in this bag. 

Making company with myself.

And then the light grew dim

And the sand blew furious

Funneling me up 

Up

Up

Into the great void of space.

And a force immediately gripped me 

And began stretching and pulling
In directionless direction.

Until I burst into a wonderful

Super-nova.

Confetti littered eternity.

I saw everything inside that 

Quiet explosion.

There.

Equanimity.

I exited,

Full and new

And landed with two feet on to
Compassion.

I rode it back.

My heart in place.
My blue skin revealed.

Upon reentering the atmosphere
The blue of sky vibrated 
Against the blue of my skin

I opened my eyes 

And saw you. 

Clutching a book
In air.

We spoke. 

And I saw from the corner 

Of my heart,
Your hands radiating blue too,

More than any underwater world
Ever could. 

stephanie lorentzen-jordan