Ian Caws
Rainbows
When I woke, the tea was cold and papers
Had slid from my knees. Nothing to return
For, so I stayed, knew there was no purpose,
None except to watch the rainbow. Like spies,
We had traded in secrets now and then,
Knowing the rainbow was always somewhere
Else, that there was nothing beyond the space
Inside me or nothing I could vouch for.
And all afternoon, it seemed, the rainbow
Flickered at my eyes while, on my desk, post
Stayed unopened. When I dozed, I was by
The layered sea, drenched in all its colours,
Aware suddenly, hidden things were lost
Forever. Yet it remained through the moist
Window and when I looked again, there was
A second rainbow, outsoaring the first.
And perhaps what I have always stopped for,
Though distracted by sloth or fantasy,
Was that second rainbow which climbed too far
And appeared only once, that nobody
Acknowledged or offered intimacy.
And this is the time for sleep and rainbows,
For leaving dropped papers for a new day
Or never, in a time beyond goodbyes.
Page(s) 11
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