Hope/less

It sneaks in, uninvited,
so small at first.
A single cell, a malignancy
that grows and replicates.
It spreads, like rot,
until it’s all-consuming.
It fills the heart with radiance;
it fills the soul with resilience.
It lifts one up on gilded wings
to soar far above the muted hues
of a fog-soaked forest.

But give it time;
it can only fade.
Reality will reach back out
with gnarled boney fingers.
And when it does,
it leaves one falling back -
grasping in desperation
for any radiance that lingers.
Those fragments that remain,
shards of broken mirror,
cut deeper than before.

There’s an emptiness inside now,
eating away the corners of golden light
leaving shades of gray behind.
It leaves one hollow,
drunk on what gilded wings
and golden skies above.
And, like wind across the treetops,
there’s nothing more.