The Caviar Of Hope

You could only sense Hope’s patter
Whenever you tried filching from its platter
He would not give in easily
Charitable as he is, he scoffed at unruly and undeserved entitlement
If you wanted the real him
If you wanted not a knock-off that will leave you worse off
You had to earn him and do it the right way
It didn’t cost much
After all the only way to have him listen to your matter
Since time began, it was to rid yourself of the charades of the Hatter.
And speak your help, your need from your heart in all its bile and butter

A man is nothing without hope
When the downturns of this journey we embark on become pronounced
When they overwhelm and pass over, like the high tides breaking the boundaries of the seashore
When they become too much to bear or too heavy to carry
We search for a reason
We long wholly for why it all matters
We will raze the very fabric of life to discover it
If it were humanly possible
Still, we can only ask why all these valleys
These troughs have spelt only unrest
Many ask if it is even all worth it
That even in the existence of a cosmic purpose
Even if it was all for harmony
Was the pain of it all worth it?

In these moments shrouded in doubts and seeming abandon
We cling willingly to hope
Some even more desperately, to this caviar to the general
It is free to all
When you use it appropriately
It is like the shining star in the blackness of the night
A precursor of the calm that normally succeeds the storm
It is like that condiment that flavours a bland-tasting meal
The hackneyed pathway that leads to the light at the end of the tunnel
Long bouts of despair are quickly vanquished by its appearing
The listlessness that permeates the being of one stricken by its lack, is whisked into oblivion
And the liberated body becomes revitalised when its owner continuously latches his tongue onto its refreshing spring

When it is misapplied by many, as often seen
It can resemble a comet passing by only once
It will look like a furlough that yields no gain
And also compounds the effects of what you sought a leave from
You can move in retrograde velocity
Be on a crash course for self-sabotage if you call him amiss
Experiencing what disguises as him will have the markings of the rich man’s request to Lazarus
An impossibility
Your own riddle of the sphinx
Hope is your Oedipus
Claim him to guarantee, first, your life and that of the besieged Thebans in your life

Now when you stretch forth your dangly hands besmirched by the passage of the challenges of this journey
When those hands near the platter of hope
You no longer hope to hear its patter
You won’t deign to even steal
Neither will you employ the underhandedness of requesting wrongly
Truthfully, even now by using your hands
You pervert the propriety of the process
Ah, it is indeed too fine for vulgar taste
Thank your stars, however
His charity is not discriminatory

So before you part your lips to say to the butler
“Serve me the caviar of hope.”
You hope to know you have situated your desires
You hope to have founded even the minutiae and/or the major details of what you need ‘Elpizo’ for
That you have a meaningful attachment to what is demanded

Then you can usher in the coup de grâce
Take a bite out of the caviar, knowing that you are not worth it yet deserving of it
And taste the expectations that follow
Taste the future that awaits if you hope in spite of Taste and have the vitality of springboks that comes even in the barrage of obstacles you face and may face
And as you chew and swallow
May your mind wander no further
May you behold the peace that flushes the doubts
And have in your heart the unwavering confidence of the better that awaits

The Caviar of Hope