The remnants of a hurricane
went through desert lands, this weekend.
It brought clouds, off and on showers,
sometimes it poured. Morning glory blooms
proudly stayed open all day long.
The desert and its people sighed
with sweet relief from glaring sunshine.
On Sunday night, near sundown,
the quality of the air went radiant,
and birthed twin rainbows.

I stood below these half-circles of neon,
and I marveled. The bottom bow
was the older twin, glowing vibrantly,
especially near the earth,
where it plunged its colors into the land.
I watched the younger twin mirror-image
the lower - purple outer-edged
compared to the lowers purple inner-edge -
it blurred the air with more subdued
rainbow hues, and my mind stroked them both.

The storm was leaving, kissing
desert lands, and its people,
with life and grace, with fresh hopes.
Behind the twins were gray, darkling skies.
Mountain shredded clouds flung themselves
through the twin rainbows with joyful innocence,
creating motions of cascading rain
within the very atoms of the bows,
in a way I’d never seen. I wish
those colored raindrops had fallen on me.

Erin Elizabeth Kelly-Moen
© Copyright 9/20/04