Caught by the River

Common Blue: a poem by Jelle Cauwenberghs

Jelle Cauwenberghs | 17th September 2018

Yesterday, I wrote –

In response to a job advertisement,

My greatest strength. How boring.

Clear tactical thinking

In situations that can be stressful – and demand

Technical precision.

I looked at that sentence awhile.

Did I mean a comma? Let me go crazy

With the punctuation.

I went outside and a blue butterfly flew

Out of a tuft of grass.

It was a common blue.

Celestial blue on the inside,

And on the outside –

Pale – almost brown. I thought,

That is my greatest strength,

if you can call it that.

This scarcity of colour,

Like lapis lazuli –

To keep the light from bleeding out.

A tactical decision;

To strike beautifully, when I can.

A star,

Carbonized in a swirl of comets,

Crushed, so as to form

A body known to those who watch

The night sky closely – my arc,

My clear descent.