The Sky's Blue

So it seems that all poetry submissions on this platform need to be 100 words or more. I wrote this poem a while ago, and it would defiantly NOT let me improve upon it, so I will just take a few words to preface it here.

Have you ever edged your way to the rim of a cliff and tentatively peeked over? Or perhaps walked right up to an egregiously tall object, like a sky scraper, or even just a telephone pole, and look straight up along its length? Do you remember how your stomach gibed and jumped at the mere thought of all that space to fall into?

This was the feeling I always had when looking up into the sky as a kid, at summer swim practice or sunbathing in random fields, and even when I just pondered the concept of the infinite. The simple imagination of it terrified me. The sheer gall of that excruciating emptiness.

I tried to capture the feeling here and communicate it. I also paired it with NASA's famous Pale Blue Dot, a picture of our gorgeous home falling through deep heaven like a dust mote in a sunbeam. I found it eerily fitting, and I hope you can taste it too.

The Sky's Blue

When I was a child,

I spoke like a child,

I thought like a child,

I reasoned like a child,

And the infinitude

Of the sky's blue

Overwhelmed

And scared me.

Because it was

So perfect

And went on and on

Forever

And I was scared

(I knew)

That I could float into that blue

And what if it turned black?