Elpis

I was just always waiting for summer.

The warm crisp air the nonchalant freeness of a zephyr that saunters across the fields everything bathed in lush iridescent golden rays,

The nostalgia of every summer, calm halcyon days.

Nothing more beautiful than an empty summer morning

to wake with the sun witnessing the shades of vermillion and amethyst

blend with streams of amber saffron breaking the ash grey horizon.  

The sun life’s catalyst

But before we knew it our endless summer ended.

But really we are all still seeking

Hoping clinging for an eternal  summer extended.

Life bloomed in a spring

Then a hasty rapid summer season everything grew quickly

Life changed rapidly

Life came to autumn.

Fall was rich and colorful the musky scent of ruched scarlet leaves mixed a dash of nutmeg and cider wafts through the air.

Yet, among the vivid imagery the world slowly dying--brilliantly, beautifully, slowly dying the trees be bare.

As each bright sanguine leaf gingerly drifted to the ground a sad fragment of the world dies.

Yet, we aren’t sad during fall the sights, the smells, the sounds leaving crunching people chattering it all masks the slow death.

The world begins to lie.

Autumn: a grand comfortable melting into the tones of a fatal symphony.

Then life stalls in winter.

The grand music swelled

the grand crescendo ended  

and now silence

Cuts through the frigid violence

But winter won’t last forever yet unfortunately spring won’t skip either.

Stalled, stagnate at the cusp of winter and spring.

Life is stuck in the bitter cold soggy

Life continues to attempt to spring forward

yet this spring is unfruitful barren orchard.

Ever, flower fails to bloom instead the existing trees deplete the soil of its nutrients, hopes, and dreams and the garden begins to wither.

The rain plummets, turns to sleet, turns to hail, floods the land.

However, there is a sliver

left at the bottom of the world’s pithos is all I need:  Elpis

Once the wine, oil, and grain drain and the curiosities monsters unleash left to scrape the bottom of the barrel

battered so fragile so futile in measurement

yet even when life is in suspended animation

Elpis still flutters it’s gossamer spirit illuminates the grim abomination

Elpis is the reason why we strive for the eternal summer

for the hope of tomorrow

for the chance of a lifetime my dear.

Fall robs us of our glory,

winter depletes us

spring drowns us and dries us out

weathered away

All I need to hold Elpis near.