Cast from a simile of Paul of Tarsus
Thence depicted as an anchor (ancora
Speme—there’s still hope—get it?) and by suchlike
   Renaissance lore a

Person lettered heavily might be versed in;
Then was shown with Nemesis standing by her
—Why?—because false hopes will bring retribution:
   Suffering dire

Pain at being dashed—Hope itself as well as
He or she who foolishly draws upon her,
Blindly and unmindfully thereby doing
   Double dishonor.

Hope I colored blue—for the sky? whose endless
Possibilities . . . well, it seemed that leaving
Room for something not too likely alas to
   Happen was weaving

Gauzy fabric veiling one’s gaze from what it
Could not keep from seeing beyond and coping
With. And was I thinking that hope keeps faith with
   Nothing but hoping

Just as blue can only stay true to blue?
Such was not my thinking at six or seven.
Anyway, forget the blue: for the icon-
   Ography maven

Hope is colored green, because she is ever
Vernal, as if “Hope springs eternal” (Rhyming
Alexander Pope), but again, again yet
   Nickel-and-diming

Us if not to death then at least until death
Ends such repetition in casual slaughter—
Hope? Despair? the head and tail of the same old
   Counterfeit quarter.

Some of us—the older folks who had not been
Christian children who would hear elpis, pistis
Agape (translated) decreed by Paul still
   Got what the gist is