"Fragmentary Blue"

I'm yearning for a blue dress,
      blue room,
             blue dish.

But a blue dress, for sure.

When I was fourteen, Mama made me a dress
      of white polished cotton
             swirled with sky blue, 
                   the skirt cut on the bias.

I loved how it swirled about my legs.

I loved Sunday dresses
       on little sisters
            and cousins gathered to visit
                  at our grandparents' farm.

I'm yearning for a blue dress, for sure.

"Why make so much of fragmentary blue

In here and there a bird, or butterfly,   

Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,

When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?

Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (not yet)--

Though some savants make earth include the sky;

And blue so far above us comes so high,    

It only gives our wish for blue a whet."

Robert Frost

"Fragmentary Blue"

[Photo by R.H., late one day before sunset.

Blue dress at top from Bergdorf Goodman

in May 1931 Woman's Home Companion.]