Cheer Up! All Hope Is Lost!

When things don't go as planned and life seems unfair, 'Tis easy for others to rally about cheering, "Hang in there!" As you struggle to regain your feet at any reasonable cost, You'd rather not hear, "Cheer up my boy! All hope is lost!" When far from safe haven 'midst the billowing waves, And desperate mariners pray for salvation from watery graves, Drowning men are apt to scoff at the captain's strange accost, Who bravely proclaims, "Cheer up me laddies! All hope is lost!" The crew have completed their raid and are homeward-bound, Cruising at forty-thousand feet, shells exploding all around! Three engines sputter and die, excess equipment is tossed. The pilot calmly says, "Cheer up men! All hope is lost!" The unsinkable Titanic raced across the bounding main, Meeting an immoveable iceberg, which was to be her bane! 'Tis hoped that Captain Smith's final words were other than, "Cheer up! All hope is lost!," as their eternal bourne began! This little verse was written with strictly tongue in cheek! There are better ways to express hope when things look so bleak. Stand up and boldly state when others waver and blindly grope: "Cheer up, my good men! Cheer up! We'll never lose our hope!" Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired (© All Rights Reserved)