Despair is a luxury

When there is darkness at night, do you lose faith that the sun will rise again?

No. You set your alarm in faith, not in hope. 

You do not hope the sun will come again in the morning- you can count on it.

I, on the other hand, count the days when my captor will let me see more than the light through my cell window. That is hope.

Hope that I will see the sun but knowing it is dependent upon the will of someone else.

You bury your head in your hands, you bury your heads in the sand, and you ask yourself, “Who would let this happen? Who could let this happen?”… not realizing it was you. 

Your anxiety and groaning, your bitching and moaning

Fall on ears that have heard this song,

Enter eyes that have seen this dance.

You did not see a need to hope before.

You had no need of hope because you had nothing to fight for.

Who was doing you wrong?

Your questioning is cheap currency in an economy of wasted faith;

Faith that the money will stay in your accounts, regardless of the will of those in power.

Now is the hour

For you to decide, do you want to hope alongside

Those of us who *believe for 

the morning light,

Or do you want to despair and continue to waste the value of your faith in those who are determined to extort 

you? 

Despair is a luxury, son.

One We have always known we cannot afford because it will be the death of us.

It is no exaggeration.

We would die in chains, in schools, in homes not our own, in courts, in prisons, in fields, in all places

because without hope, who would fight for our lives?

Despair is a luxury, love.

One we have always known to keep far from us because otherwise it will suck us dry. 

It was prophesied from above.

We would walk this earth as lifeless bones with no purpose of our own.

Despair is a luxury because it tells you that you have no worth;

That there is no future beyond the purchase of the hopelessness you wear. 

That is despair. 

To show the world you’re wrapped in clothes that do not need repair.

For you’ve settled into stains and tears,

Only having ill-fitting clothes to wear

because it’s all that your faith can imagine the next day will bring.

That is despair.

Do not let them convince you that hope is the luxury because hope, you see, is free.

No one can take it from you. You cannot buy or sell it.

You can trade it, though.

You can trade it for something new or different.

Despair is the luxury when you close your eyes and say, “Nothing else is for sale”

When hope is there for the taking.