Hopefulness


The Santa of youth,
When cookie and milk waiting
Is all that’s needed.

Hope remains uninvited,
Even as school requires learning,
Entrance exams depress,
Dating becomes beggars’ game,
Job recruitment disappoints.

Hope comes alive,
As adulthood delivers
Salaries anemic,
Intimacy invisible,
Hungry offspring in tears,
Fido given to a shelter.

Hope becomes the crimson lining
Regret wears inside out,
As fate’s coat so heavy,
Dives one more time
Into dumpster-reward.