Conversations We Could Have Had (A Series)

1/

 Blue like the ocean or blue like the sky? 

It is the same difference, one is just upside down. 

You don’t mean that.

  I could. One is just saltier,

that is the only difference. 

It hurts our eyes to look through it. 

Eh, you can’t open your eyes

to something you are already

in the middle of anyways. 

Are we all blind then?

Probably. I hope I am,

I don’t want to see anything you can’t. 

But maybe you could

just see more.

What would be the point if we aren’t 

looking at it together.

I don’t know, I could still feel it I think. Groping around,--

No, I would guide you.

You’d get tired.

Not because of you at least.

At least.

What is a river then?

Rivers aren’t blue.

They are clear and we run right through them

or they are brown and mucky and act

as more impassable borders than walls ever could.

I saw a blue river once.

No, you didn’t.

It made me sad.

All the blue and nowhere

to go except forward.

It was lucky

you know, it was still going

to meet the sea in the end.

The ocean was miles away though.

It was going to take years.

Years aren’t always so bad.

We couldn’t know

could we.

No, I guess

we never got that chance either.

Reviews

[Aneurin]

I love poems that are all weird, kind of unexplained or out-of context dialogue like this. reminds me of some dialogue parts in "the waste land". it sort of feels like drifting in and out of sleep in the back seat of the car on a hot day while your parents are speaking. honestly I would read anything in this format, even if it were s**t. you could, if you wanted to lean into that feeling as much as possible, not justify the second person's dialogue right, and simply have all of the lines occur on the left, with only line breaks between them. the dialogue is pretty complex, so this could be too confusing, or it might just not be what you're going for. anyway, I like it.

[amomentforus]

Thank you so much for your thoughtful review! You are my first comment so it really means a lot! The idea of justifying is interesting and will think about it moving forward. I've written a similar piece below if you want to check it out!

https://www.writerscafe.org/writing/maiarosenbaum/2885088/