There hadn't always been a rainbow© GERALD ENGLAND
only it was there when needed
impressing itself upon her
needful or not
She wanted the rainbow
even though she never saw
seven colours clear
Sometimes and it was usually winter
she could distinguish five
But mostly there were three
with a merging in between
Inside there was violet -
flowers and blossom when his kiss
gave bloom to her becoming
In the middle of it all the blue
of the clear sea on the sand-dunes
where they had loved when she
no longer liked him coming to her bed
The tide had rolled over them
as they heated the night
into the outer red of passion
and the violence of tearing apart
She had wanted the rainbow
It was real
She had analysed the spectrum
measured every wavelength
knew it as she could only know a man
But she wanted more than the rainbow
She wanted the pot of gold
that was not of the rainbow
but lay beyond its end
She did not find her pot of gold
She had by then destroyed the rainbow
She had lost reality for the wanting of a dream
Composed: Sheffield, 11th January 1974
Publications
1977 Pennine Platform
1980 THE RAINBOW AND OTHER POEMS (Heckmondwyke, Fighting Cock Press)
1997 Poetry Today OnLine (Internet)
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