esperar

hope--
what a strange concept!
to put faith in something
that may or may not come to pass,
to trust that all will be well
whether or not what you hope in
will materialize

it is a grand risk-
sticking your neck out
unaware whether it will be chopped off
or embraced,
censured or favored.

logic suggests to safeguard
the heart and its aspirations,
to seek scientific confirmation
before placing confidence in
an obscure supposition and
absolute uncertainty

and yet how the heart
longs to soar to the heights
on the wings of that hope
and taste the sweet air
and rise out of the dark dens
of common knowledge and dusty reasoning.

Ah, the quandary! The dilemma!
What say you?
To Hope?
Or not to Hope?

to journey out in blind faith
and suffer precarious vulnerability
or to buttress in
and conserve a meek core?

don't you see the risks in both vices?
to stay within the fortress
will mean most certain protection
but no hope at all,
only life long imprisonment
and deplorable stagnancy.

but to give credence to
and to ascend forward in
an ambiguous prospect
with expectancy and postulation
will mean most probable pain
but also hope and flight and
unblemished liberation.

And again I ask,
will you hope or will you not?
Will you stay safe in the hidden crevices
of the mountainside
or will you venture forth
risking all for a dream
that holds inestimable worth?


© copyright micah holcombe 2007