Hope on the Line ​by Katherine Koller

Hardwired for it
we know
yellowed leaves fall
dying eyes close
books burn to ash
fireworks explode
but hope
antennaes another leaf
anticipates one more day
fingers the next page
beholds the
wings of a bird.

​Previously published in Happiness Reflected (2023) and Poetry Pause (2025).

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About Katherine Koller
​Books by Katherine Koller are Voices of the Land (plays), Art Lessons (novel), Winning Chance (stories), a High Plains Book Award winner, and a new collection, Earthen: Stories. Her latest play is Persuasion, an adaptation of the novel by Jane Austen. www.katherinekoller.ca