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

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