SOMETHING BLUE

-for Meg Rains

Everywhere blue existed
first, we are tourists.

So when the couple was wed,
they felt compelled to extend

a formal invitation to it. Blue,
the local authority, zipped up

a party dress and used eyedrops.
The entirety of the being of blue,

the long, personal history of blue
(which includes, but is not limited to,

the efforts of dyed blossoms beneath
grocery store neon, and later,

the vases dumped down the sink,
the sorrow of rivers

which empty and empty
and never become lakes,

and every lake collecting
sunsets and other vessels)

participated in the ceremony.
Therefore, everything changed.

For once, no one, not even the rain,
forgot the sky. The clear May sky,

which gladly dressed one – then
two – birds on a branch

preparing to bloom.