Something Blue for My Daughter-in-Law:
A Blessing
something old, something new, something borrowed,something blue
by Ellen Sazzman, Rockville, MD
I want to make something blue for her to wear,
a wreath of hyacinths to brave the waves
of her long hair, a supple mask to catch her breath,
a knitted scarf to warm her slender neck,
some piece to hold, to protect, to share; a blue
as sacred as the Biblical, covering
the Covenant's Ark, the formula for
ancient Hebrews' secret dye forgotten,
except for the boiled blood of snails; a cloth
that can't be torn but spreads; a diaspora of blue
woven from strands of the first day's light and dark
and the second day's ocean and firmament,
a disguise to baffle the evil eye,
an amulet for fealty, because she cries
easily' her tears filter down the blue
margins of her age of linked vows, smudging
her blue love, and there are tears in my son's
pale eyes in whose gaze she resides, a favored
place; a shade that varies with sea and sky,
changing with the weather, from orchid to blue-
bell, iris to larkspur to violet; a blue to make her
love me or thank me or at least forgive me—
a blue girl too. They circle inside the song of seven
marriage blessings but there is no blessing for blue.
I make the one for rainbows, a promise of blue.
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