Greg Brownderville

Trainbow

I am a poet from Arkansas and the creator of “Fire Bones,” the world’s first go-show (www.firebones.org). The video poem posted above, titled “Trainbow,” is an episode from chapter four of “Fire Bones.” It’s about a girl from Indiana who was always considered dangerously different in her small, quiet, conservative hometown. She had a quirky personality and liked to make strange art. She made friends with folks her family disapproved of. All of this made her parents quite nervous. Her dad nicknamed her “Nobody” and told her it was good to be a nobody, to go unnoticed, to be respectably bland. But the young girl wasn’t having it. She ran away from home and took up residence in the woods—specifically, in a rusty old farm truck that a tornado had placed in the arms of a giant oak. She was happy out there in her truck tree. But her parents tracked her down and forcibly admitted her to “The Unit,” a wing of the local nursing home for individuals struggling with mental illness. After a short time, she escaped and hopped a train south. She had no idea where she was going, but she knew she was moving toward freedom. The video poem “Trainbow” is about this journey. I know that many of you can relate. I certainly can. I grew up in a small rural community, and while I loved my friends and family, I had to leave home in order to chart my own way, just like the protagonist in “Trainbow.” I hope you enjoy!