Blue

A million years to form, a blue sapphire takes a fingerprint

from the meta-rock around it, while the titanium seeps in. 

I n Egypt, ground down lapis lazuli became the first blue pigment,

for art, for makeup, for the elite.  Symbolizing those who win.

Tinctoria, just a crop that overgrew in fields of green, 

yet the true source of indigo, 

the dye for blue jeans.

Ultramarinus, beyond the sea.

With its special method of absorbing light rays, 

a rainbow boils down to one degree,

only blue expansiveness.   

A ship in the ‘olden’ days, after losing a crewman, 

flew a blue flag as it returned to shore.  

Today it’s called feeling blue, but human. 

When the thrill is gone. 

Painted ceramics, a trick of the eye, B.B. King,

a glance down at the sapphire my grandmother left me. 

Perhaps it’s just my two blue irises, tinting my view of these things.  

France 2018: Caitlin Leishman