Study in Blue

Poem about the Great Salt Lake in winter. Joint winner, My Word Contest, Week 1, 2/2020.

Study in Blue

Great Salt Lake in winter,
blue upon blue, sky blue and powder.
etched with wandering scrawls
of midnight, details of birds in flight,
dark ems scattered like punctuation
in the cold air above the surface,
and the water still and featureless,
defined only as pools of pastel colour,
swathes of subtle hue swirling
on the flatness receding to the horizon,
only the sharp, acid white of salt
dividing lake from shadowy mountains
that echo the blues below
and the ephemeral sky.
Cool colours and cold, leaving us
ashiver as the vista soaks our souls,
faces hardened by winter’s touch
and fingers skeletal in the wind.


Line Count: 18
Free Verse