Aquarium

First they are color,
words for blue:
inkblot,
blueprint,
held breath,
innocent eyes,
blood in the vein,
lapis lazuli,
new bruise,
madder blue,
charged peacock,
pills beside the bed,

or words for green:
bottle glass,
boa,
camouflage,
elusive wing,
apprenticeship,
cellar stair,
lost key,
a price to pay,
highest roof in Rome,
sick of everything.

Then they are names:
damsel, clown,
coral toadfish hairy chin,
flameback angel burning wing,
holy mackerel, crimson rover,
midnight parrot eager beak,
reef shark, hammerhead,
sapphire eel bites for keeps.

They linger in the eyes,
surface on the tongue.
Fish in the brain,
fish in the blood,
a hook in the heart
pulling tight.