Hope is a Flower She used to tap her feet to the sound of Jazz, but she lost her zeal beneath the weight of stones tossed pell-mell in her direction until the pile resembled a monolith of great proportion that chipped away at her fortitude. Searching the sky for any recollections of lost mirth, she was blinded as the soft azure was sliced from end to end with a dagger wielded by a bitter tongue, left to bleed in shades of crimson rain and trickle with a salty sting over open wounds. From drought to monsoon and back again without warning; the sands of her soul were all but washed away, the dried up river bed of her heart almost withered from thirst, until a single rain drop shed by a single cloud allowed a single blade of grass to grow. And hope is a fragile flower, yet it grows in the desert. january 2006 Janet Reid Awarded the *Milky Way Award* by SoulStarz Galaxy