“Weather Patterns,” by Wei-Wei Lee
October 2, 2019
the lady in the elevator called,
“look at that rainbow!”
and we all did,
sticking our necks out past the doors to get a good look.
we are so starved for pretty things.
but there was no rainbow,
only the faintest smudge of purple against the cotton fluff of clouds spread
across the sky like quilt batting, blocking out most of the
fresh-washed sky
as pale and clean
as first light.
I looked back at her,
the lady in the elevator,
and her eyes, so wide and wondering and delighted
about that bare smear of color
in the sky.
if I’ve seen better rainbows, that is my joy to have.
“it’s beautiful,” I say, and she beams – and there, in the curve of her smile,
I see what she means.
Wei-Wei Lee is seventeen years old and attends Nathan Hale High School. She grew up in Taiwan, but was born in the States, and Seattle is the first city in the States she has ever known and loved. As the 2019/2020 Youth Poet Laureate, she hopes to pay tribute to both Taiwan and America in her writing, and she hopes to do them proud. Wei-Wei read her poem at our 2019 WITS Back-to-School Luncheon to support our Writers in the Schools program on October 2, 2019.