"Hope - Know My Worth" by Eloise Banting

Hope

I was born to heal -

Compressed into beauty -

From coal to something real -

To make those I touch free.

But so roughly I was FOUND -

By a man who did not know my worth -

I was found from my sparkle UNDERGROUND -

I was found in the beauty of Earth.

They took me away -

To be carved into their currency -

They said in your Eden you cannot stay -

Because you belong overseas.

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You will give me fortune -

You will give me fame.

Though you were born to heal -

I will force you into a bejeweled frame.

But I will pass you along -

Among my parasites - my friends -

I will lock you in my closet -

Because your profitable sparkle never ends.

Though you were born of the great spirit -

To give life in those that sold you - 

I will sell you and I SOLD you -

Because you will give me profit.

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But those deserving of me -

Know my worth so sweet!

And those who cannot see -

How my healing powers cannot be beat -

Are the ones who lose -

The goodness of my soul -

For they so self-righteously choose -

To see me as gold - more gold!

I was carved by the high man -

I was carved by the corrupt pope -

But I am not 'The Hope Diamond' -

I want to be just hope.

Yet you see more value -

In those jewels in the flood -

Not the ones passed around -

More than the diamonds of blood.

No man can see my worth -

Even the ones who crave -

The spotlight for protecting -

My bloody peers from their blood grave.