How Will I Know?

I hold hope aloft this fall day

pull, run, tug, play

below, patterns of possibility

squares, spirals, shapes still undreamed

zephyr playmates tease

hopes falter, dip, plunge but then

buoyed by the breeze

rise again

Will I know when

bored by shorter days

brutal bully breeze

will sneak away

behind barrier hills

leave hope to drift, fall

a final plunge

from tormentor’s gust?

How will I know

hope will no longer rise again

promise slammed

into the brown-scummed pond?

Prompt:  How will I know