The Hope Laughter Dynamic

He seems very playful today
and everyone wonders why
with things going on in his life
that make younger people sad.
Does age give them some kind of
immunity from feeling? The younger people ask.
I would be a little put off by that.

If you take away hope,
he tells us eventually,
you are in toyland,
in a flippy care free game.
If none of the broken parts of life
can be repaired, you are free.
Hope is an easy sacrifice to make
as the screws of life begin to loosen;
and freedom lays before you along
a laughing path.