Ce Feu Bleu | Shortlist

Ce Feu Bleu

la couleur

est bleu,

mais non

le bleu

je veux

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Shortlist

I.

winter wave reaching for

the school—the largest building—

the school—largest building—

water tanks, an airstrip, post office,

general store, subsumed by the Chukchi Sea,

winter wave reaching for artifacts and

ancestral heritage predating the modern era—

and winter wave reaching for the school—building

II.

drunken trees list asymmetrically,

debased by a corrupted compass

destabilized by thaw, a rag pole

forest leans into slapdash metaphor

shy summits and long-lost fissures fry,

while we read the names tribute

III.

The Matterhorn, Muir Glacier, Helheim Glacier,

the Chacaltaya, Glacier National Monument

in Glacier National Park. We read the names.

Space X and Blue Origin fashion timely

alternatives to submersion maps,

beaconing skyward like an oracle.

Miami, Brooklyn, lower Manhattan,

the Everglades, the Outer Banks, Grand Isle,

New Orleans—the names we read.