Hope for the Heartbroken by Sean Parker Dennison

Fear Can’t Last Forever by Robin Tanner

17. Hope Is Not a Bird, Emily, It’s a Sewer Rat by Caitlin Seida

Hope is not the thing with feathers
That comes home to roost
When you need it most.
Hope is an ugly thing
With teeth and claws and
Patchy fur that’s seen some shit.
It’s what thrives in the discards
And survives in the ugliest parts of our world,
Able to find a way to go on
When nothing else can even find a way in.
It’s the gritty, nasty little carrier of such diseases as
Optimism, persistence
Perseverance and joy,
Transmissible as it drags its tail across your path
and
bites you in the ass.
Hope is not some delicate, beautiful bird,
Emily,
It’s a lowly sewer rat
That snorts pesticides like they were
Lines of coke and still
Shows up on time for work the next day
Looking no worse for wear.