HOPE~ By Michelle Alice Clark

In the changing landscape
there is 
HOPE
At the hairdresser
spider covered body 
in a black ink

She is the whitest person 
I know
Her hair changes from RED
To WHITE
And her acrylics
She wears them
BLUE

She loves country music
And hates her boyfriend’s metal
Sound of music
HOPE was the singer in a band
Until the morning 
Made her sick
AND don’t go rappin’ on her door

She lives in the part of town
Her brother calls 
Laughing?
The hillbilly ghetto

Rice and beans
Makin’ the streets
Rough around the edges

But at the adult shop
Where she fills in
Sometimes 
Cause the pay is GREAT
A black friend sits 
who HOPE has gotten to know
She wonders how she works there

I wonder
how SHE works 
there

The techs zap their rice bowls
HOPE 
Hates the smell
But likes the food
And eats THEIR noodles 
At her favorite restaurant

You can only know
When the edges touch 
And you listen 

There is HOPE
In the changing landscape

​
Author Bio:
Michelle Alice Clark, is a veteran television and digital media producer, writer and director, and has worked in the industry for over 20 years. Poetry is a prism through which she can explores she perceives to be a darkening and disturbing world; and to look at that world from various points of view.

Ms. Clark is also a painter and holds an MFA in Studio Art from the New School Parsons School of Design and a BA from Wellesley College. Her poem ‘The Island Light” was published recently in 101Words.org