Mellow days of September again
And I gather all the fragments of myself,
Lean into the age-old depth of me
And muster all the courage I possess,
To fly down the hill across the fields,
To the river blue, my fluttering soul
Like the Siberian migratory Raia birds,
Looking again for a September rainbow
Overcast sky, deep midnight blue,
Not even the evening’s afterglow.
But it requires some sun, some rain,
To make the miracle of a rainbow
So I breathe in the greens of the paddy fields
From the kingfishers I borrow the blue
Violets, pinks, reds, oranges, yellows
I steal from the wild flowers, bashful.
Then I adorn a crown of flowers and grass
Clap and dance around the haystack brown.
Winds and songs mingle in my head
To make a rainbow from all that’s around
Grateful for this brook of joy within me
I look at the sky, and whisper “thank you”
The sky responds with an inverted smile
It looks at me and forms a rainbow