I Am The Rainbow

I light myself,

I am not lit.

I stoke my blaze,

I’m proud of it.

In the beginning,

Warmth was brief,

Born of woman

Drenched in grief.

She put me down

To cradle pain,

And wandered bent

To fight again.

And as she drifted,

Throbbing wound,

I stayed purple,

Mottled,

Doomed.

Cords hanging loose,

A voiceless soul.

No mouth,

No power,

Empty hole.

Then someone saw me,

Recognised,

Those stagnant pools

Behind the eyes.

Of muted creatures

Well they knew.

They took my throat

And squeezed it too.

And clamped a lid shut with a screw.

Asphyxiated.

Bottled blue.

Twisted tight,

No air could flow.

Cut off from life,

Unconscious,

Though…

A void in Nature

Is a sin,

So kindred bodies

Scurried in.

Mould grew on mire,

A fetid green,

And teemed with terrors

Sharp and keen.

They scuttled over

Feeble skin,

And fervently

Slashed channels in

To the heart.

The beating died.

Dead.

But painfully alive.

I dropped,

Surrendered,

To my death…

…and there came space

To cherish breath.

Life.

I felt it.

The first time.

Real.

I relished what it was

To Feel.

I touched myself

With loving hands.

Explored my scars

Like foreign lands.

And then I wondered

At a source.

So small,

Looked over,

But what force!

So bright and yellow,

Luminous.

So thick and healing.

Glorious!

This juice,

Secretion,

Oozing sap,

With fervour flowed

To fill my cracks.

And boiled with red

And raging flood,

To lance my poisoned,

Screaming blood.

My space on earth

I did reclaim,

As fiery mountains

Roared my name.

I lit myself,

So I am light.

Sit next to you

Like stars at night.

My fire,

Borne of shame and wrath,

Burns coolly now,

To light your path.

The routes of suffering

I learnt well,

To save you from

A glimpse of hell.

I’ll guide you onwards,

Eons far,

‘Til you see you,

The way you are:

Your beauty,

Dazzling majesty.

The reason

That you came to be…

I am the rainbow,

I declare,

That you’ll stay Here,

And far from There.