for my Mother, Father, Jack, Dana, Debra and Robert

Evening came early tonight
surprised me at first
each of you – here too
together, as we were then

Never did I see mom look more beautiful
or seem more certain
of the redeeming power of hope
than in this new light

I’d come to think of myself
as too hopeful
overdosed
to my circumstance

But as it’s turned out
It wasn’t enough after all

We are alive
in the waiting
greed’s fuse
lit first
will outrace any dose of hope

There is no longer enough of time
to turn it back
even if we had hoped to


© r.s.greene
April 2019