The place where blue becomes darkest –
out past indigo –
in a shadow the mountain throws
across a steep, rocky cut
before it becomes night…
That defocused region
down below a line where
the ocean begins to imprison light –
changing azurite to sapphire
in its descent toward the inky,
mazarine darkness…
The color of water in a well.
But, the deepest blue shades
follow scarlet intensity –
in the wreckage of emotion –
after acetylene rage has scorched the reason
and left only steel-gray dross behind.
