Look, I Didn’t Make the Rules

 

Hope is mandatory.

Everything else can be faked.

The reckless optimism 

It takes to open your eyes 

On an ordinary morning 

Is nothing to sneeze at.

 

We’re hopeful things at bottom;

Maybe that’s our tragedy.

Hope is the mother of disappointment,

But disappointment is the mother of wisdom,

 

And wisdom brings new hope,

Completing the circle,

Because hope, after all,

As we know,

Is mandatory.