Can a rainbow last forever?

Yesterday, I had a late-night, deep discussion with a friend of what is happiness, and she shared this poem that she had written over 10 years ago:

If I close
my eyes
i can see

As a child
prancing
to school

Dangling
onto
Pappa’s hand

The swaying palms
the washed out blue
Of an empty sky

I remember the joy
of rain bubbles
going `plink’

Delighting for hours
in rainbows
in the oil slick

But that was
aeons ago
And today, i’m wiser

I think I know
these little joys
are impermanent

I seek important
`big’ reasons
to be happy

Reasons
less ephemeral
than rain bubbles

Reasons
less elusive than
the smell of new earth

I continue in
my quest for
a permanent rainbow

My very own
that nothing, no one
can take away from me

But then why …

Do little nothings
of long ago
still gladden my heart

While I have
no memories
of yesterday or day before ?

In my search
for `meaningful’ joy
am I forgetting

To conceive today
the smiles
for tomorrow ?

Does happiness
know
the difference

Between
rainbows in oilslick
and rainbows in the sky ?

– deePa