a crystalline horizon

blanketed with clouds and the soft fluttering of birds

hovering above a boundless ocean

sparkling and embraced by the sun’s warmth.

the saccharine taste of candy-flavored milk

and soda-flavored gum.

was the ocean always this captivating

despite its reek of cigarettes and dried squid?

but then again

blue was always deceitful.

blue allures you into the depths of its midst

promising only what it can’t return

the finite infinities, the ending forevers.

in broad daylight, it shelters cerulean butterflies—

innocence, tranquility, and wisdom.

at twilight, it spreads a slow rictus of ominosity

a black void that swallows you up whole

takes advantage of your self-affliction and torment

plunging your head far below

the water’s frigid surface among

the microscopic carcasses of the unknown.

oh, to be the color blue.