Rainbow

Wrote Evie Shockley,

In conclusion, we

Saw the lightning we

Saw the lightning we

Saw it and it was

Not subtle. Subtle

Is as subtle does.

This is not the place

For more ekphrasis,

More analysis

Of men and their myths.

We’re thinking about

Lightning, the giver

Of fire to bipeds,

One of Earth’s forces,

Like fierce winds, earthquakes,

Floods, or volcanos,

But both visible,

And abrupt, distant

And so intimate

It can lift your hair

And strike your neighbors

Dead the same instant.

Of course this terror

Ended up in myths,

Wherever myths were,

Whoever told them.

It was not subtle

As experienced,

No, certainly not.

But the ancestors

Wanted narrative

And explanation,

And here we are, still,

To show their meanings

Were serpent subtle.