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Love is Blue

I find myself gulping for air which has no melody.                 At best, it’s cymbals crashing.  Blue ocean as far as I can…

I find myself gulping for air which has no melody.

                At best, it’s cymbals crashing.  Blue ocean

as far as I can see, and my body in love with water.  My body

                in love with undercurrents. These are difficult

matters.  During revolutions people destroy their own artifacts,

                create a million cacophonies. All that fire.  All that roaring.

You’d think lighting a match would be clean and simple.

                Long ago in high school a girl crumpled her math test

before bending over a small mirror to apply mascara

                in a sweeping motion while the rest of us were solving for x.

The enraged teacher stood next to her desk.  She paused and held

               the raised wand like an orchestra conductor.  Without taking her eyes

off the teacher, she brought it down slowly so that everyone

               in the room would continue believing in music.

 

-Nancy Botkin (St. Joesph County)

first published in Cimarron Review, Summer 2012

 

Nancy Botkin

Nancy Botkin’s poem “Love is Blue” originally appeared in Cimarron Review (Summer 2012). She teaches at IU South Bend.

Indiana Humanities is celebrating National Poetry Month by sharing a poem from an Indiana poet every day in April (hand-selected by Indiana Poet Laureate George Kalamaras). Check in daily to see who is featured next!