loosening

Earthworms creep, aerate the soil,
Enrich and break apart what they
Ingest along the way.

For this we value them.

Hope aerates the fields that lie before us,
Puts heart into us to till and turn, saying
Our plows will not be broken,
Our seeds will not smother,
Harvest will come, in season.

Hope, as an attitude merely,
Obscures rational expectation,
And is blinders to the horses among us
Who must trod, and trod:
Hope is mercy to them.

But hope, as a loosening of expectancy,
Is no mere attitude, but an ever-creeping
Function, deep in the fertile mind.
And there, may it be a healthy multitude;
Make more workable what reason sets upon;
Increase reason's scope, broadcasting seeds:
That rise to shoot, then ear, then full grain within the ear.