Hope is brazen, courageous, and audacious.
Despair’s loathed rival, bargaining with destiny, pleading with Providence,
Hope is brazen in her fight against the ebbing tide
The dimming light,
The darkness closing in on all four sides,
The floodwaters rising higher and higher,
Oxygen slowly evaporating,
But still
Hope has the audacity
slamming her fists on the wall even as air turns into nothingness
holding her baby aloft even as the water reaches her nose
running to reach the end of the tunnel before it closes in
She will be the sparrow throwing sips of water on a burning forest
She puts on her oxygen mask and then make sure everyone has theirs on
Even as the world turns upside down
Even as fire and water and air become one
Despair hunts her down with its guns and blades
Hiding in the shadows
Lying in wait in dark alleys and behind pillars
Above rooftops with large boulders
Waiting to annihilate her at every turn
and Hope is forever on her move against it
dodging and stooping low, fighting to escape
And just like the hero at the end of the movie
she will make it out alive at the end, by hook or by crook
Survival against all odds is the only thing she knows
Some call her delusional but History rut-tuts at us giving us a knowing smile
Hope will win
Hope will be the last woman standing when Despair coughs up its dying bloody exhale
Hope will clamber out of the abyss and survey the desolate wasteland around her
Maybe missing some limbs, a tooth or a few broken ribs
But she will be smiling
She will build her home from the ashes around her
She will pray at the ordained prayer times even in that desolate landscape where sun and moon seem to have disappeared
She will smile and reach her eager arms towards the smiling Angels surrounding her deathbed
While Despair’s rotting corpse lies in a fiery trench
Hope’s soul nests under the Throne of God
Hope has reached home at last
Despair’s loathed rival,
She has always been brazen, courageous, and audacious.

The author holds a postgraduate degree in Political Science and is currently working as a Research Associate.