Tender

Tender

Sunday, February 7, 2021

Hope can be too demanding

 

Long View

I understand that hope can ask too much

how comforting to sink back, let demands

float away, spend the days

not caring

I see it's not just easier; sometimes it's life saving

to forget to try, just wait to die

reduce yourself to the basics.

When effort falls flat what inspires more effort?

When trying draws judgement but not support, when doing takes energy from precious stores

When experience tells us the prize will cost more

than it's worth

abandoning hope can be a warm blanket safe haven 

a kind of birth

free, finally, from the strain always striving suck me dry try try try

treadmill hamster-wheel life of strife hanging on by broken nails

the carrot always miles 

away

I see why, today, you might decide despair is a better friend

and in the end

I can't disagree, even though I see there's something lost in translation

I can't shake your ambition free; it's hard enough to do it

for myself.