PRIDE POETRY CONTEST
Ridgefield CT Pride is partnering with Ridgefield Poet Laureate Emerita, Barb Jennes for a Pride Poetry Contest later this year. We will have multiple age categories so all can participate. Details to come.
I Would Miss the Rainbows – by Barb Jennes
A poem to celebrate the Ridgefield Pride flag raising, June 1, 2023
“When you reduce life to black and white, you never see rainbows.”
~ Anonymous
Imagine the world in only black and white.
A world with only pandas, penguins, and zebras in the zoos,
black labs and dalmations the only adoptable dogs,
just tic-tac-toe or dominoes to entertain young kids,
black-and-white movies the only film fare,
only the Jolly Roger flag allowed to be flown,
only Oreo cookies or black licorice for dessert,
no day allowed, only black night with white stars
(sorry blue dwarfs, it’s time for you to extinguish),
all new cars: white with black interiors,
all coffee: black,
all shoes: black; all sneakers: white,
all towels and sheets: white,
black ink only to write essay, eulogies, poems…
We weren’t born only black and white.
We were born blonde, brunette, red-haired, jet,
oval-faced, round, square and pear,
thick-thighed and thin, tall and petite,
in a rainbow of skin colors,
a hodgepodge of histories,
a symphony of sexualities,
a jumble of genders,
with loves gifted by God, not governments.
So don’t ask our town, our nation, our world
to denounce its differences and legislate love.
I would miss my bravest of friends.
I would miss the rainbows.