Seeing Blue
Last night we had a square room
overlooking the harbour which was so close
that African marigolds in the window-box
glowed against a background of slate-blue.
A green roof two thirds up the window -
warehouses on the jetty opposite -
hid the horizon. Boats were moored there
with rusty upperworks, bright hulls, red, green, blue.
Later a masthead light cast some thin lines, orange
vibrating on blue. I sat up in bed listening
to the whoosh of the shower and a towel rubbing
with my head turned to look out at the lines.
I woke in the night, peered under a black curtain.
The sky was pale and the sea was lying there,
steel blue, faintly opalescent, and I knew my mother
grew up on another coast of the same sea.
Blue was her favourite colour.
She liked opals too, and the sea is often
that mix of colours. Yesterday it was uniform,
subdued. There were no reflections under the boats.
In the morning a Galway Hooker shook out
two red sails, curved away round the pier
towards a line of low blue humps and faded
into the union of drizzle and sea.
Tonight in another house I take a quick glance out
at red and white cattle, go to the bed, sit down,
start arranging my things and suddenly there’s blue
in front of my eyes and I know I’ve lost something.
Page(s) 41
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