The Promise of Blue

Kazim Ali

What we wanted was to watch him silver fall

Cut the surface of the water and leave no bruise（擦伤，青肿）

Every earth bound angel who was taught his body was a sin

Calculates in his head equations needed to sculpt the air

As he aims from grim height for the promise of blue

Always smote by lightning, disobedient boys tumble in a tangle down

To drown in the well of others' rage or their own sorrow

Thirst to again return skyward, unbloodied and held close

But to leap is to know the body is the equation the sky has written

And around the body that launches space unfolds its shape of wings

Blue water and blue air are the same substance and within

He turns into currents and tides surging in place

Swims the endless distance down, soars sleek through the cold depth

Now years after he still sings the eerie air as he walks along the shore

He still knows the secret—that at every moment in the body and breath

One can still plummet and plunge and soar