Within Pandora's Box

by Carole Greenfield

Her name means “all gifts” – gifted was she with beauty, grace

and, as we well know, curiosity: that sly kicker, tragedy-maker,

trait that leads us down the path to learning lessons only

once we've found our worlds destroyed, life-long trusts shattered;

can't put back the pieces, parts that once so mattered we couldn't live

without them. We thought wrong. The path to wisdom is a road

hard-fought and long. The real question: what to do with Hope?

Keep her trapped within a box, her power buried deep, muffled,

trying to break free, a damaged butterfly who yet may reach

and heal our hearts, utter why we hid them from her, turned away

from a belief in bad things getting better, let Despair become a thief

of dreams of brighter futures, holding hostage all our vision.

Enough. Open the box. Let Hope go. Make the decision.

***

Carole Greenfield grew up in Colombia and resides in New England, where she teaches English Language Learners at a public elementary school. In the previous century, her work appeared in such publications as Red Dancefloor, Gulfstream and The Sow’s Ear; more recently, it can be found in places such as Amethyst Review, Sky Island Journal and The Plentitudes. Her first collection, Weathering Agents, was released in summer 2023 by Beltway Publishers.