Obstacles

 

Hope is the culmination of wanting

something you cannot have

and believing, despite the odds,

that it is within your reach

For so long, I held on to hope

–the dreams held there, just out of reach–

I believed in “just rewards,”

that with “hard work,” you could achieve.

But life designed a different route

rife with detours, twists and turns–
with illness, loss and so much pain

so easy to veer off the course,

so hard to find that path again.

Like the sailor men of yore

lost inside a starless night

with no sightline back to shore,

 there is no going back in time

…just another storm to face

    just another hill to climb.

© Ginny Brannan 2026