Midnight Rainbow
The sky went dark and the stars hid
behind a ceiling of gray,
and my reflection matched it—
shadows filling me up
the same way they filled the sky.
Something whispered that I was wrong.
Not a voice, just a knowing,
an ache chewing at the center of me
with no name and no reason.
One of those nights.
No one around, nothing to say,
my mind running the same maze
and hitting the same dead ends
again and again and again.
I replayed every mistake.
Told myself I was foolish. Dumb. Worthless.
Told myself no one should love me,
that I don’t deserve a second of peace,
that fate would step in soon enough
with her knife.
I grabbed my cigarettes
and walked out the back door.
Lit one. Killed the flame.
Looked up.
And there it was.
The clouds cracking open,
moonlight pouring through
like something being revealed on purpose.
A halo around the moon,
colors bleeding through the dark—
a rainbow at midnight,
impossible and brief.
It lasted seconds.
But it was enough.
Enough to lift my eyes.
Enough to make me think
that maybe the days behind me
are as gone as that light in the sky.
That the time for beating myself
over what’s already dead
has passed.
Dawn breaks early now.
And for once,
I think I belong in it.