From Unpredictable Hue, 2019.
Quantify
The two guys
work hard to convince
the woman.
Their laptops
hum and spin. The three confer.
Do the numbers speak
the language
the bank wants to hear?
Continue
the woman
says. Inspects dreams lighted by
the glowing screen. Hope
tints faces
she must ignore it
It is not
a kindness
to support drowning in debt
but impossible
not to feel
the aspirations
second-hand
of two guys
who need her to value hope
and find its number
(shadorma chain)
7/5/18
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
We’re all looking for it. (K)
You capture both that feeling of hope and the nervousness of knowing that your hope might be dashed by someone else’s decision.
I was thinking about the years I spent as a commercial loan officer handling people’s requests, when I saw this scene at the grocery store cafe (back in 2018 it was). And I knew just how everyone was feeling.