Airplane Sunrise

It was as if someone had taken a wildly orange paint and swiped it across the horizon of the still dark blue sky and the clouds were an ocean rising up to engulf us. There was never anything so beautiful, so tranquil, so fearful and terrible even as the moment the plane tipped its wing drastically and descended into the hazy yellow dream of the clouds. Once we'd come through the other side, daybreak was not even yet noticeable. All the city lights still burned as bright as ever. Yet somehow through some trick of the light (it may have been my window pane or my sleepy imagination taking hold) I thought I detected a rainbow in the cloud.