Before There Were Rainbows

Before there were rainbows, I roamed ambidextrously, I streeled out into predawn air, senseless between Moon and Mars, Reeling under Calvinistic cinder blocks, I hid from my shadows. Before there were rainbows, I thought my heart was wooden, In those days, they had shiny suits of armor awaiting me. I tried filling them with my syrupy fluid, but it always leaked out. Before there were rainbows, everyone was Fred or Ginger, Ozzy or Harriet, Lucy or Ricky, Sonny or Cher, ones, or zeros, Machine language with a chokehold on the imaginable. Before there were rainbows, the age of innocence in yearbooks, In high school pictographs, we were anatomical imitations of expectation, Like Rockwell paintings, we were predictable, amusing, and safe. Before there were rainbows, I dare not believe in my spectrum, No fella sang “I Feel Pretty!” No boy “…could have danced all night!” It was all covert, something dirty in a bathroom stall Before there were rainbows. My muscular lightning belied my vulnerable rain-soaked downpours Before there were rainbows. My secret Preludes to the Afternoon of a Fawn went undetected Before there were rainbows. I’m a senior now admiring all the hard-won freedom, All the fluid beauty of the young, recalling the canned laughter with what we tried to be before there were rainbows. Published: July 10th, 2022 - Dissident Voice