Faculty Slam

Yesterday was the faculty Poetry Slam. What poem do you slam in front of Elementary school kids? I wasn't sure, so I wrote a new piece. There is this book called The Rainbow Fish. I first came across it in Japan. It's about this fish with all these cool sparkly rainbow scales...but all the other fish are jealous, so in the end, the fish gives away its scales so that everyone can have one. I was livid when I read it. I mean clearly the idea is that sharing yourself is beneficial to the community, but I was sickened by the thought that you would have to give up who you are, simply to make others feel better about themselves. My friends tease me and think it's ridiculous that I would be so irritated about some kids book, but it just makes me crazy. Every time I think about how many kids out there are reading that book and absorbing it into their psyche I want to punch something really hard. But that would be really stupid, so instead I funneled my irritation into the creation of this poem. It's called: The Other Rainbow Fish ©

Once there was a beautiful rainbow fish,
She was a fabulous diva with lots of glitz
She had rainbow scales and bright purple fins
And giant eyes as shiny as gems
Half her tail was turquoise
And the other half chartreuse
With stripes and polka dots done in puce
She was the flashiest, most colorful, delightful fish
As she swam by all her colors went
Swish, swish, swish

But the other fish were haters,
Every time she swished their was
They had nothing but negative things to say
“you’re too flashy, you’re too glitzy”
“what’s with all the swish, swish, swish.
You can only be one color in our school of fish.”
Some fish would giggle
Others pointed their fins and railed
“Who ever heard of a fish with a striped and spotted tail.”
“You’re too different, you’re too strange.
All those colors are insane
There’s like totally no way
You can play in our fish games.”

So the poor rainbow fish
Was lonely indeed
With no fish to play with
She hid in the reeds
She tried to rub off her rainbow scales
And wrapped brown seaweed around her fabulous tail
But when she began to swim
They recognize her,
by her bright purple fins
They said “Oh no! It’s that tacky rainbow fish again,
Can’t you understand that we’ll never be your friends?”

Well, she had tried to hide,
And she felt bad that she had tried!
Who were those other fish to be so nasty and snide?
She was who she was
Anything less would be a lie
That’s when she decided to have some pride

She ripped off the seaweed
She shined up her scales
And did a quadruple swish
With her fabulous tail

And once she had escaped
Those plain jane hater fish
She realized there were other parts
Of the ocean she had missed.
And thus began the great journey
Of Miss rainbow fish.

She traveled here and there
And everywhere
And lots of other fish stopped to stare
At her great beauty
At her rainbow scales
At the swish, swish, swish
Of her fancy tail
And they loved her,
ADORED her
Because she was who she was
And she gave them the courage
To be themselves
Just because…

And when occasionally she came across a fish
Who didn’t want to be her friend
It didn’t bug her so much
Because she had learned by then
That the haters were just scared
And trying to blend
Instead of taking a chance and believing in
Their greatness
Their beauty
Their truth
Their light
Their hope
Their spirits
Their strength
Their might
That whatever kind of fish you were,
It was just fine
And for the rainbow fish
It felt absolutely divine.
She was free!
Finally free!
To be exactly who
she’s supposed to be.