Rainbow Colored Eyes

1993, Elizabeth

When it rains, the children
seek her out
They see the sun hiding in the
crystalline haven of her rainbow colored
eyes
And when her lover grows weary
of reading the NY Times,
he calls her up and invites her to the aquarium.
As she and her lover stroll past the thick
panes of glass,
The fish see her rainbow colored eyes.
They feel for the
first time
that
They are the ones who are free
and the lovers are on display.
Coral reefs, peacock feathers, prisms, and
ancient marriage ceremonies
are
her favorite things.
Her smile eclipses the jewel tears
sliding silently
from
her
chin
She has rainbow colored eyes.
Red like the palms of eastern women,
Turquoise like a sliver of sky
between sky scrapers,
Brown like sequoia bark,
Green like malachite,
Violet like distant mountains
Dijon yellow,
and nasturtium orange
When the sun hits her eyes
She scatters
tiny rainbows
on the ground
She stands on.
She cannot see one color

isolated.

When she sleeps, she dreams.
In her dreams
She is the Ugly Duckling
in a H.C. Andersen's fairy tale.