Hope is a four letter word (2020 revision)

Hope
is a four letter word
that we learned as children
meant our dreams just might be heard.
That the world just might not end,
that the nukes were absurd,
and that ‘truth’ was relative
and that ‘truth’ would get stirred
and spread across the globe
so that boundaries got blurred.
We thought hatred would be beaten
and the powerless heard.

Hope
is a four letter word,
and we kept on hoping
and the leaders converged:
and the products got better
and the debts we all incurred
were a small price to pay
if ‘progress’ occurred.
Or rather, ‘growth,’
which is a six letter word,
which means people getting rich
and a rising tide inferred.
The future would be brought to us
by those the banks preferred.
So world peace got cancelled
and the flying cars deferred.
And the poor somehow got poorer
and cancer’s still not cured.

Hope
is just a four letter word.
Nothing’s really different
except Fear is now chauffeured,
wielded to divide us:
hate and anger spurred.
And ‘truth’ is now a product
sold through three word slogans, purred.
The fake past has been glorified;
the future’s been interred.
The old and weak are left to die
and the planet burns unheard.
Amidst presidential tantrums
and conspiracies conferred,
‘better’ is no longer
an inclusive word.

But the world’s been painted weary
many times before, I’ve heard.
The young will always question
and push forward, undeterred.
Perhaps we were impatient,
those of us whose hearts were stirred
by Hope,
which is still
a glorious word.

For the curious, here is the original.