Rainbow

is it the rain that drives me

I wonder ponder court dismay

the drops glisten down the awnings

those drab cloth banners I hung to keep the rain at bay

every silvery trail left by the wet gods

that languished here today

i ask beg stumble into epiphany

are these the silver linings the clouds left behind

for one such as me

a fraught traveller to find

or are they but the dew of memory

liquid hope that the drought of creativity

baked across the land

as viruses took hold of our collective dreams

and trampled them into the sand

they say water is the great cleanser

the universal equaliser

it washes all our sins away

but can it flush the pain of lost opportunities

of wasted lives and spent mobility

of unlimited potential gone astray

I can only pray the downpour

hard watery strikes on the earth

flying fluid shards in all directions

work like a scourge on this misbegotten year

unmasking the lies we’ve told ourselves

washing away the evils we hid behind fear

cleaning the muck that grew

because we permitted it to

four years of darkness can’t disappear

in one long day of rain

almost half a decade can’t be undone

in one cloudy release

but at the end of every storm - it shimmers

a reminder of a promise that there is always hope

that there is always renewal after the rain

unveiled across the sky, it appears in a row

an arch of bright colours that beams over the horizon

to god it was a vow

but to us - it’s a rainbow.

BY GITA IRWIN 2021