Hope

                                       By Steven Liu, 2021

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Hope.

Of an elusive nature anchoring our minds to reality.

Providing a goal, desire, will to continue. A rope

Ever-present in the darkest corners and all too present in futility

 

In times like these, we must seize and grasp it tightly. To

Save it from fluttering its transient wings, a final prophecy. 

 

A defining nature of us, of humans. 

 

Matter is separated from conscience, which gives a purpose, a longing to

Achieve, to escape predestination, and write our own. 

The butterfly found the child, who’s drawn to it. Imagine magnificent beauty

That ties to unspeakable horrors. Perhaps it’s fate. As she leads a difficult life, she

Embraces it, grasps it. As she grows, she learns from it, learns to desire. 

Realize the futility, she does not. Now an adult, her only desire is to escape.

 

Obsession, as she is consumed, blinded by a utopia that does not exist,

For she does not understand, all utopias are dystopias. The final line of the prophecy.

 

To dream a dream is one, to distinguish dream from reality is another. 

Reliance is the intention, as it first baits and rescues her from certain demise.

Unwillingness to accept the inception of truth, the embodiment of knowledge

Shows the duality in its nature and in human nature, the monkey’s paw that crushes unaware souls.

There is no escape. Darkness creeps and engulfs sanity, replacing it with madness.

 

In those unable to distinguish desires from reality, it seeks a host. Those

Not consumed by it learn to tame it. It becomes a vital part of them, a drive to reach

 

An amorphous goal to escape certain demise and become the manifestation of greatness.

But judgment is not lost, as it is only a goal, not a reality.

Careful to fall into its transcendental grasp, an inescapable black hole.

 

Hope.

Of an elusive nature anchoring our minds to reality.

Providing a goal, desire, will to continue. A rope

Ever-present in the darkest corners and all too present in futility