The search for hope

The search for hope goes on

I look beneath the bedding of the homeless

But it’s not there

I ask the Romany beggar-woman

But all she has to offer is a toothless smile

I search the silvered windows of the corporate tower

But they are blind

I scan through the accumulated images of war

And all I see is dividends

I interrogate the pages of the poets

Who answer with cadaverous words

And as the search goes on

It seems that hope is an illusion for the hopeful