Hope, by Nancy Sobanik

Hope, by George Frederic Watts (UK) 1886

​Hope 
 
If she were here, would she likely be cliche?
Not the thing that always sings, but one 
 
that scorns the day, draped in black threads, 
tiny sunburst tattoo on her leg hanging off her bed.
 
Bent over a cracked screen, eyes accusing
light, she’d tell you she doesn’t like school, 
 
and she’ll never need trig, but she watches 
for what creeps and crawls on scarlet knees.
 
Hears the vibrating sibilance of silenced tongues,  
sees the random flight of smoke collected by a breeze.  
 
Marks her journal with phases of the moon,
weaves tendrils of words to cry themselves into green.
 
Notices each fiddlehead unfurling to fern.
Listens for the drip, drip, drip of incipient spring.
 
Nancy Sobanik
 
Nancy Sobanik is a Registered Nurse, who started writing in 2020 and is learning poetics through workshops, study and the feedback of generous poet friends. She was awarded second place in the Belfast Maine Postmark Poetry Contest 2023 and is currently a 2024 finalist. Her poems can be found in Sparks of Calliope, Best of The Net Nominee 2023 and Pushcart Nomination 2024, Triggerfish Critical Review, and Sheila-Na-Gig. Maine is her playground and home.