top of page
Writer's pictureElaine Gao

Who Art Thou

One fish among a thousand

One voice drowned in an ocean

You streak past predators and cleave through currents

Under their noses for the ultimate present

The choiciest meat that is the fisherman’s bait

A ticket to above awaits

Your sister climb over your shoulder

But you fling her off to the under

Your brother steps a foot over your head

But you bite off his fins until you see red

The fisherman has one hook for one fish

So not your entire family can fulfill their wish

The race is not who gets up there first,

For many have been rejected by the fisherman’s thirst

He wants their champion whose strength and talent surpassed all

Many contenders; many downfalls

My brother can shoot endless bubbles in a straight line

My sister’s balance enables her to swim down an incline

Some make music by flapping their fins

Some can outsmart two-legged creatures with superior genes

But I, I’ve memorized the entire layout of the sea floor

And practiced the dash for a perfect score

As the water gets clearer, clearer, clearer

My finish line looms nearer, nearer, nearer

Until I swallow the wriggling worm

And break through the water in my proudest form

The fisherman’s probing eyes moved up his brows

A rumbling question: “who art thou?”

I suck in my gills and answered

“I am the food on your table, the prey in your hand, or something else by your standards.”

“Oh, foolish fish, you don’t even know shrimp from whale

You don’t even know who thou art and thus you fail.”



For all the people who went through the college application process or will start it soon :)

44 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Toxicity

Here is another one one my proudest poems. I don't ask that you necessarily like it; I just hope that it can jog your emotions in one way...

Comments


bottom of page