April 12th, 2026Hope Stands Defiant by Kim Collins (winning entry)

Hope is defiant!
Oh yes, she is
She is angry as hell
Snarling like a Mumma Bear
Screaming like a Banshee

She will have none of your shoulder shrugging excuses
About why you take no action
And why we, collectively,
Hold no-one to account

Hope will not stand by passively
As you reduce her name
To a mere platitude on a Hallmark card
She asks so much more of you than that

Hope stands solid
Grounded within the four pillars of her temple:
Beauty
Justice
Equality &
The common good

Do you see her now?
She is walking the black,
Fire ravaged earth
Crying out to all of us
To wake up from our techno-infused
Soma-sleep
From our Kool-Aid sipping
Insipidness.

Fist held up in defiance
She says NO!
No to war
No to ugly words & ugly intentions
No to all the ugly stuff, everywhere
Filling and killing our beautiful planet!

She says no to
Children’s imaginations being stolen from them by
Tech giants
And no to real conversations being replaced with mindless clicks
Of “like” or “dislike”

She says no to cliches of every kind
She will not agree with you 100% –
Perhaps, just 87.

If you ask her to comment about the future of A.I
Hope will answer you swiftly
A. I? “Axe it”
Cut free from that umbilical cord immediately
And think for yourselves!
But you know this in your bones already
Defiance is our only hope.