blue lotus

the eucalyptus is also called

the blue gum

blue is either the rarest

or the commonest color in nature

on the leaf of the lotus I beheld

a drop of dew

which was a drop of glue

on cut fabric

verisimilitude

my one pleasure

truth-seeming was easier

to get into cuz it

was everywhere

like the sky in its common blue britches

like the sea in its common denim

was there really any lotus

there in the flying-j rest stop

or atop my head blossoming into

a thousand petals?

the cock crowed all night while we

were in the tipi

confused we thought by the full moon

later a coyote howled, self-satisfied

as its snack

had announced itself

the leaves of the gum are like

the water that surrounds a melting glacier

blue is my favorite color but I’m not unusual

in that way. it sells magazines & jeans.

we all live in the uncanny valley

common as star-stuff

I don’t care if you love me

there were 60-ft waves in kaua‘i today 

my blood’s blue in its veins

and I look good in my jeans

blue like the sea and blue like

my people in the sea