EKPHRASIS IN BLUE

For Annabelle Utrecht

An old black and white photograph someone has

developed with blue toner          slightly out of focus

interior scene, dark, but washed out with the light

from the big open door          it’s a big institutional

door          it appears to be a circular pool          is it a

hospital or therapeutic spa of some kind?           steps

leading around the side down into the pool          old-

fashioned encaustic tiles cover the walls          cover

the floor          surround the pool          this blue amniotic

chamber looks like it was built between the wars

and by the pool is standing a man          an elderly

man stands by a blue circular pool in the gloom

washed out by the blinding light behind him

to his left          it looks like daylight          I smell chlorine

and the light reflects from the wet tiles quavers

on the surface of the water in the pool          I can’t

make out his face          the old man is wearing

wide-legged 1940s-cut trousers high around his

waist held up by suspenders          his tie is wide

and he leans dapperly on a cane with his right

hip          in his left hand he holds          a homburg          a trilby

a fedora          I am not certain against his left hip          his

face is a navy blue thumbprint with half it an

eye and his mouth are inky bruised          I can’t

make out his expression          on the back of the

photograph someone has suggestively written

“death”           this perhaps makes for a melodramatic

poem but you must believe it is true.