Hope Shadow

To hope is brave for those that have been mistreated.
It is just a passing shadow out of the corner of the heart's perception.
It is such a beautiful shadow, one of love, comfort and security. But like many shadows look at it straight on and poof! it changes shape or vanishes all together.
Stop looking straight at it and there it is dancing on the very edge of your reality.
So desirable and yet so intangible. So how can this frustrating phantom do any good?
When it is always just out of reach taunting and teasing with the promise of something so important. It seems to be a cruel joke on a fragile soul. However if it did not entice so effectively one might loose faith in what it represents. One might start to think that what the shadow has to show does not exist at all. When that happens it truly becomes unattainable. So you see it is not teasing to torture. It is showing in glimpses what can be.