A History of Blue

Brainscan blue of the horizon’s edge
before dawn. That is the blue
of indecision. Five blue lights blinking
the plane through metaldust sky
while the Pacific lilts like aquarium-plastic
around some humid or hypothermic blue latitude.
Look closer. Here’s Stradbroke Island
in shades of blue-ringed octopus,
blackblue crabs on rocks like moving bruises.
Drowsy blue of my teetotal grandfather’s tattoo
and the blue book of his brain
that remembers all birds by their Latin names.
Blue guts of swimming pools, blue-tongues
scrummed in one shady corner. First and last:
the sky’s huge blue hand pressed
against the windows.