Winner | “America, One Year from Now” Writing Contest
Kathy McGoldrick of Ellicottville, New York for “Hope”
McGoldrick will receive $100 and publication both online and in print.
Hope
I hope Hope wanders in
carrying bowls of blistering soups
and clay tureens of mussels,
and I hope she wears snow for grace
and purity and trails behind
a train stained
here and there with the blood of the butchered
embossed into roses.
And I hope Hope smells of flowers
deep and sweet as whiskey
smoked amber,
and faint as moonflower
walks into dawn carrying baskets of woven beard
holding bartered bread of lean grains
grown on scarred ground,
and cheeses aged in old churches.
And I hope Hope comes with her head down,
watching for bees in the wild flowers
where their feet once stomped
like spoiled boys,
Indian paintbrush and dandelions
in the paths the dragging left,
waiting for the the return of the bees,
waiting,
I hope she comes.
I hope she carries sticks,
wild sticks,
that whipped at the ankles of spring
for the fun of it,
those sticks to start a fire now,
those sticks
and a spark
And I hope Hope sparks, too,
her eyes when she lifts them
bright as the sons she lost
*
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hope © 2025 Kathy McGoldrick
What a lovely and clever poem. The language surprises and line breaks elevate the craft. And it embodies hope, just what we need!
The good, the bad, and the ugly transformed into true images from life and experience wrought by the embers of all our realities molding our compassions collectively…into a history of our fight to stay humane in man made landscapes sowing caste and cruelty. We are once again showing up strong in community; a force known for its gathering pulse to stomp out hate by segregating only weeds.
Thank you for this poem! This is bravura writing–vivid and evocative! It gives us a vision we can embrace.