Free Verse: Two Waves Within A Pond
Within a humid room that was moist with damp.
But just before the bend of night and turn of morning,
A pool of rain water had accumulated before my bed.
It smelled of ocean water but arranged itself as a freshwater pond,
In which, swam a pair of koi fish that circled around each other,
Creating two billowing waves that constantly stirred away
After the other and away from each other
In a constant, cyclic stirring.
Within the darker trough of one wave,
Was the growth of a lighter swirl;
And within the lighter crest,
There came the withering of a darker one.
Swimming after one another, they flowed forward and back,
Undulating under and over the ripples of the other
And returning back to their own shores.
Ever swelling and dipping between the sides,
The liquid threatened to reach over the edge and spill over
At their disruptions, but was somehow contained
Within their constant mending arrangement.
Cupping both hands, I took both waves into myself
And felt the turbid waves wash away within me,
Yet casting its spare remnants aside in disparate proportions.
So much that I took from the darker, negative wave
That it urged me to take more of the brighter, positive one –
And so much of the latter that I needed more of the former.
To find some balance that was never very well sated
Of saltwater and freshwater eating away at the other,
Of two waves of an ocean that was never really a pond,
I thought by drinking them both would have satisfied my thirst.
Instead, they had me seeking more water until
I had drowned myself altogether within that pond.
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ANNIE WANG is a senior pursuing a Baccalaureate degree in English with a minor in Creative Writing. Annie is a student at UAA. She says she can write decently.