I change stained panes with absent guile
To suit each new required style
It’s what I knew white light can do
If it’s a rainbow I am too
I’ll shine right through each different hue
- But only for a little while

Long ago, when I was green
And hadn't yet stepped on the scene
I wrung dry every morsel fed
To me by those who stuffed my head
And from every book I read
- At least now I’ll impress the dean

Once in a while I turn yellow
And I can be totally mellow
Unwind and find a quiet mind
Leave every stressful thought behind
Pity it takes substance of kind
- At least I give a nice hello

Orange is when mania sends
It does well with meeting some ends
I am random, messy, and loud
I act reckless, spastic, and proud
You couldn't lose me in a crowd
- At least its fun for all my friends

Twice in my life I have shown pink
Lovers whom I’ve loved made me think
In ways I never had before
And feel as if I couldn't more
Don't know what this one has in store
- At least they both drove me to drink

On rare occasion I’ve seen red
When I thought that I’d lose my head
I was indignant, I was raw
I revolted against the law
Immolation was what I saw
- At least no one ended up dead

Many a time I’ve had the blues
When I had lost the will to lose
I’d hole up in my room all day
In bed wasting my life away
Depression has its price to pay
- At least I sang some soulful tunes

My choice to box up did derive
From desperation to survive
I thought "For now, prisms won’t do;
What light can do, darkness can too,
And I can prove all this to you;
If not - at least I’ll be alive."

But when I tried uncasing right
And to reverse-refract my light
To into a ray of purest white
I found it can't be twice reflected
Once its nature has been rejected
The spectrum can’t be re-perfected
- At least I know now what to fight