When you’ve exhausted the sad songs,
you’ll listen to them again
to seek out a hopeful message,
some sort of radiant transmission
hidden beneath the melancholy melodies.

Perhaps you’ll find something buried there,
a phrase or two of encouragement
resonating in your faint heartbeat,
even though the voice of reason knows
that your heart is simply an elaborate prankster.

For you, my friend, are full of hope,
wide-eyed and hollowed out,
your solemn core clutching at the possibility
that there’s a trumpet blare surfacing
in a sea of slowly shifting piano ballads.

When you’ve exhausted the sad songs,
you must let them fade away
like a child’s balloon drifting through the sky,
because you weren’t strong enough to hold on.
And that’s what makes you stronger still.