a hockney

a dried pink menstrual line
a damp white line
then a dried pink menstrual line again
then a rusted fingernail line
a faded china-red flock line
another white line this one drier not snow
then an ultramarine blue line
i had been waiting a long time for
the sea from over the sea blue line
then another slightly less blue blue line
i suppose that is the bass line
then another bluer line again
then another blue line somewhat lighter
another blue line darker then an aftertaste
like a blue after a lover has gone twice
then a really dark blue line
tht begins the true reef of blueness
then an even darker blue majestic credible death
then the ghost of this blue still dark though
then a light blue that sleeps with a lot
that sleeps with anybody really
then a posthumous lighter japanese blue
then a blue that sleeps with clouds
then a blue marrying water again (at last!)
then a blue water losing blue sounds
then a blue that is a light white
then a white that is a light blue
then a white that almost has some blue
still
then a blue that is cerulean it is given up
then a blue that has forgotten everything
and somehow exists losing constantly
then nothing beyond human existence
because the painting has abandoned blue
the line of time has nowhere to go
and the blue does not even remember to forget

oh

that blue which is forgetting to remember