deepundergroundpoetry.com
Rainbows - - - - for the It's a knockout comp
The red and yellow plastic telephone
Has large buttons for fat clumsy fingers
The numbers on the buttons are worn
Animal transfer prints adorn the base
The pick-up a rainbow and two clouds
The phone played “I can sing a rainbow.”
It could only handle out going calls
The phone bashed and all scratched
So well loved and so well used
You made so many calls, expecting
But nobody ever rang you back
Red calls were the hardest calls to make
You were in perpetual danger
And there was so much blood
No policemen came
No nurses came
Even god didn’t answer
Yellow calls were frequent and furtive
You were so easily scared and freaked out
You had more reason to fear than most
No Priest came
No Nuns came
Even god didn’t answer
Pink calls happened, just not very often
You were deprived of love and hugs
Nobody told you they loved you
Your mother seldom came
Your siblings seldom came
Still god didn’t answer
Green calls just seeking some peace
You, curled up in a ball weeping
For you there was to be no peace
Batman never came
Superman never came
God didn’t answer
Calls the colour purple a child in slavery
Bound, gagged, beaten and encased
Coloured black by coal dust in the cellar
J F Kennedy never came
Martin Luther King never came
Even god didn’t answer
Orange calls just pleading for brightness
To see the sun through blackened puffy eyes
For you darkness was the only light to see
Demons never came
Satan never came
Even god didn’t answer
Blue calls happened every day
The deepest sadness seeking rescue
You begging for the help that didn’t come
Your brother never came
Your sister never came
Even god never answered
I tried to phone you today
In my mind I heard it ringing
“I can sing a rainbow”
It rang out, you didn’t answer
I just hope you haven’t given up
I called to say I am sorry
Sorry for not being strong enough
Sorry I couldn’t protect you from evil
Sorry I could not assist you to escape
Escape all these inexcusable horrors
I called you today to tell you
I am ready now to release you
To be the child you were meant to be
Red and yellow and pink and green,
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow
Sing a rainbow
You can sing one too.
Published 20th Jun 2017
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likes 9
reading list entries 1
comments 15
reads 635
Commenting Preference:
The author encourages honest critique.
20th Jun 2017 9:17pm
21st Jun 2017 4:56pm
20th Jun 2017 9:38pm
You're on an emotional ride, David. Your poetry reflects it strongly. Tear-jerkers.
21st Jun 2017 4:58pm
personal experience sometimes trumps imagination :-( thank you for the read and wise comments :-)
David...This one has created tiny heart-cracks, and it's difficult to swallow past the pebble in my throat---the tears threatening to spill-over...( and in reading the final stanza, they slipped silently down my cheeks...).
The intense, and sometimes desperate emotional tones are so clearly expressed that the reader cannot help but to experience the feelings personally. The child's telephone is a perfect, symbolic choice...enhances the poignant urgency of the pleas( calls) for help--as only a child could make. And, each color is a spot-on pairing with the various feelings.
A sensitively sad scribe...with a positive conclusion
My very best to you in the comp!
( i hope this is NOT reflective of your own childhood...) xo
The intense, and sometimes desperate emotional tones are so clearly expressed that the reader cannot help but to experience the feelings personally. The child's telephone is a perfect, symbolic choice...enhances the poignant urgency of the pleas( calls) for help--as only a child could make. And, each color is a spot-on pairing with the various feelings.
A sensitively sad scribe...with a positive conclusion
My very best to you in the comp!
( i hope this is NOT reflective of your own childhood...) xo
21st Jun 2017 5:02pm
the phone and the calls were real as was the childhood experienced - sometime personal experience makes a poem truly emotional and authentic, more than the imagined :-( I am sorry I made you cry, but content it touched you (If that makes any sense) :-)
Anonymous
21st Jun 2017 3:05am
Wow David.......this is so emotional........you created a dynamic ink......it's touched me very sadly........purple luv & hugs xo :)
21st Jun 2017 5:05pm
Poetry like this is hard to write, it takes it's toll - but it raises awareness and touches people and makes folks think - or at least that's what I hope :-) Thank you for understanding - 1000 hugs - David :-)
21st Jun 2017 11:51am
i have found, in my own tumultuous childhood, that god is a deaf-mute
this sings to a very broken part of me
xo
this sings to a very broken part of me
xo
21st Jun 2017 5:09pm
I hope it helps even a wee bit to now know you were not alone and you are not alone - sadly the cracks can't be fixed, but they can be papered over - I am a paper mache' survivor :-) I hope I haven't upset you with this sending you 1000 ehugs :-)
21st Jun 2017 5:41pm
Anonymous
- Edited 8th Nov 2018 00:49am
21st Jun 2017 9:40pm
<< post removed >>
23rd Jun 2017 3:21am
wow! I am taken a back and touched by such positive comments - you also show a lot of understanding - thank you for that too :-)
Anonymous
25th Jun 2017 6:00pm
David, this is a brilliant piece of writing...again your mind fascinates me...the way you allowed us to view through the eyes of a child was done superbly...regardless of the years as we grow older, the memories of what and were never leave...Best of luck in the comp...
xoxo Taryn
xoxo Taryn
25th Jun 2017 9:29pm
I have found that the bad memories and nightmares never leave for sure, the few good time tend to fade - aint life strange :-( thank you for your understanding and best wishes :-)
