Ready for Rainbows

I’m ready for rainbows. But the sun isn’t up yet, and the downpour is colorless.

With veggies and lawn planted, with boathouse deck newly stained and more decking ready for staining, rain off and on all day today (and 8 out of 10 days in the forecast) this gully washer is slightly soul crushing. No, not slightly. Bigly. So I look for rainbows. Finding none, I pull out my old bag of tricks.

I write. I try a rainbow rhyme. And then another. But the gloomies have got me by the lyric neck. No poetry in the downpour. Not today. I reread “Rumors of Rain” and admit defeat.

I flip through photos on my phone. These rainbow images, made from Rosslyn’s front stoop last summer, offer what Mother Nature does not. Yet.

If you want the rainbow, you’ve got to put up with the rain. — Dolly Parton

As so often, Dolly nailed it. But rain, followed by more rain, and then more rain… WITHOUT the rainbow? That’s a little dispiriting. But, when ready for rainbows, even recycling old rainbows will do.