Rainbow

It had been raining on and off for days with only the occasional
glimpse of sunshine. People walked along, hunched over ,through the
streets... Each one looking for all the world as if they were carrying
a huge invisible weight around on their shoulders. I guess that they
were, after all. That's what is expected of you in London on a chilly
Wednesday afternoon. I often sit, binoculars in hand at the window of
my top floor flat. I gaze down into the streets and watch the circus
below, as people come and go,living their lives and ignoring everyone
else's. It all seems so ludicrous to me, but since I cannot leave my
flat, I envy them their mad freedom.
I am, a prisoner of my own making. The fact is that I know just a
little too much, and I cannot mix with those poor souls in the city
streets anymore. I watch them, through my down-turned binoculars... I
am fully aware of their fate and my own.
It is common sense and yet, it is something that all fathers have to
tell their growing boys. "Never, ever look at the sun through
binoculars! It is very dangerous and you WILL go blind!" Wise words
indeed and although it is tempting to ignore all adult advice, I always
took care never to gaze into the sun. However, I think my biggest
mistake was made last week, when during one rare period of sunshine
amongst the rain, I noticed a rather beautiful rainbow delighting the
gloom of a Monday morning.
As ever, I fought the urge to look at the sun,(thanks, Dad!), but I was
curious to see just what the rainbow would look like on closer
inspection. How I wish I could turn back time...
Within the colours of the rainbow, I could make out all manner of
shapes, in the red, the yellow, the indigo... I increased the
magnification of my lenses and with that, I dropped my binoculars in
horror.
FACES! Thousands and thousands of silently screaming and crying faces.
Women, men and children... Crowded together and moving around as if
they were pushed together in some nightmarish psychedelic city street.
Trapped and tormented by beauty itself! I could scarcely believe what I
had seen. It had to be an hallucination, I was taking some very power
anti depressants and it had to be a side effect. I looked again and
there they were. Still, they moaned and writhed. Lost souls, only
visible through a prismatic prison.
So, now I sit in my flat, high above London... I gaze down at the
people below. I know that hell looks like heaven and it's so very
beautiful! I've added a new warning to the advice Dad gave me so long
ago. Never look at sunshine or rainbows through your binoculars, you
WILL go blind!