Watch Out For Rainbows

At night I often read the book Outside Your Window: a first book of nature by Nicola Davies to my kids. It’s a beautiful book with poems for every season, and my four-year-old in particular loves it. Last night, one of the poems we read was called Rainbows:

Sunlight’s made of colors- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet- all mixed together.

But when sunlight shines through rain, the raindrops can unmix the colors. Then… watch out for rainbows!

As a poem, it’s vivid and accessible, and I can almost feel the moisture in the air. I love the idea, too, of being on the lookout for rainbows. It feels like such a snapshot of childhood.

Anyway, after I read the poem I was in a vibrant reverie, and I thought my four-year-old was too. Then he says, “‘Watch out for rainbows’ sounds like they’re going to do something bad to you”. It was so funny to me that that was what he was thinking about. A turn of phrase that he interpreted as a warning. Watch out for rainbows. Then we joked about mustachioed rainbows wearing sunglasses and hiding behind a corner to attack. It was a wonderfully silly moment.

Anyway, happy last day of pride month! I’ll say lookout for rainbows instead of watch out. They’re not gonna hurt ya. 🌈