The Green Flash (Two Theories)

I

EYES SHADE THE SUN

The eye, focusing intently on
An intensely orange sun, flared
And plumped in size compared
To a palm tree near a handy palm,

The eye, again, denied
All shades but one
(Hardly shade, but sun),
Turns its inner eye inside

Its arsenal of colored nerves
Which, when freed at last from
Staring at that solar plum,
Optically speaking, swerves

Momentarily and maps
A contradictory synapse,
The mirror opposite of what it's seen,
Or, in scientific language, green.

II

SUN SKIPPING ON THE SEA

Between the rim of ocean's ends
And trolley shot of misting sea—
The round horizon's coral lens
That beams the setting sun to me—

A conveyor belt of rolling spray
Edits film's liquescent screen
To pass that single cinematic ray
Picked up from water's moving green.

Kona, Big Island
January 22nd, 2002

Honolulu Airport
Rewritten January 25th, 2002