Blue

from swaths of open land,
a city on the lake, parks
where we swam until blue,
where milkweed flourished
and monarchs

from the day before
the music died, from Buddy Holly
and the Crickets’ Peggy Sue—
It seems so easy…Oh so doggone easy.

from the fear of my own shadow,
from being thought the shadow
of my two older sisters,
from shadowy characters
becoming politically powerful
from new high-rise developments over-
shadowing those once open public spaces

from standing with lights behind me
becoming a shadow
of the teacher I
used to be
from being
a whisper
of the voice
I used to have
from floating where
I used to swim

from reading and writing open places
from visiting a grave, a place
where questions lie buried, answers
maybe as well, answers I think
I have earned, answers
that flit like butterflies
quick into the blue

By Margaret Rozga

Biography:

Margaret Rozga has published four books, including Pestiferous Questions: A Life in Poems (2017), written with the help of a Creative Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society. Her poetry and essays have appeared recently in Whale Road Review, Mom Egg Review, Peacock Journal, and the Los Angeles Art News. She writes a monthly op-ed on social justice issues for Milwaukee Neighborhood News.