It strikes me that so many rhymeless words in English are color words: silver, purple, orange. The rhymeless can also be called refractory rhymes: refractory, like resistant. Maybe stubborn. Like the color words are just choosing not to get along with other words. “Have you ever considered not not rhyming?”

Refractory diseases resist treatment, and refractory materials are the ones that can withstand the most intense heat and pressure. In light, refraction is a bending. Not stubborn, but flexible: allowing itself to be redirected. Sunlight bends through water droplets to get us a rainbow. Magnifying glasses, and lenses, focus light using refraction to make things clearer.

The rhymeless may not be resistant to rhyme. They just know that things change. A drop in temperature, and we’re squinting through mirages—another refraction! The sun comes out with a splash of a rainbow, unburdened by the need of a rhyme scheme. The lines end how they may.

Writing prompt: Stubbornness—overrated, underrated?