My First Rainbow

When I was just a baby

I saw my first rainbow above my crib

hung in the sky

with the sun and the moon and the stars.

When I was three, I saw my first rainbow outside

hung in the sky with the raindrops, the clouds, and the birds

That is when I drew my first band of colors, with crayons.

It hung on the frig

with magnets of people, animals, and pictures.

When I was seven

I made a rainbow with hearts of color

on the sidewalk with chalk

and imagined that it hung in the sky

with my grandma who had just died.

When I was twelve

in my diary with the rainbow on the cover

I wrote about the colors of my dreams:

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple

a band of colors, that would always protect me.

When I was sixteen

hid under my dresser drawer

I kept the secret of the rainbow

bound in my journal

with notes and pictures inside.

When I was 19

there was a person

who shared their rainbow with me

with colors in their arc

that I had never seen before.

When I was 23

I played with all the colors

smearing them together like finger paints

making the modern art of my time .

When I was 27

in the tablet of my keepings

I searched for the pot of gold

at the rainbow’s end.

When I was 32

I stood inside the end of the rainbow

and knew that what I had written was true.

It all was going to be OK