Holding Onto Hope

Every week is a struggle to pay the bills.

Every day she has to run from work to daycare

because owning a car is too expensive

and the city bus takes too long.

She runs quickly to make sure she’s on time

because her kids are her only hope.

 

The only thing keeping her going is hope.

Hope that she’ll get her paycheck before she has to pay the bills,

that she’ll get enough money in time

to pay for the costs of daycare.

The lines at the bank are much too long

and with every waiting minute, life gets more expensive

 

Everything is too expensive

for a mother with little hope.

She has to buy her kids’ pants a bit too long

so that she can pay the bills

for the everlasting fees of daycare

that she’s never able to pay on time.

 

If only she could buy more time.

That’s an investment that wouldn’t be too expensive.

Maybe then she wouldn’t need daycare.

With more time, maybe she wouldn’t need to hope

for her husband to come back to help pay the bills

after being gone so long.

 

He’s been gone so long.

The kids have noticed it’s been a long time.

He promised he’d help pay the bills

because he knew they were too expensive

for a mother with little hope

and kids to put in daycare.

 

Her husband knows the kids hate going to daycare.

They miss being away from their parents for so long.

Every day they hope

for their father to come back and pick them up on time.

They don’t know that their lives are expensive

or that their existence revolve around paying the bills.

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