Incarcerated By Sorrow Poem by Henry Tong

My youth wafts through
the surface of rippling river
and inspires a layer in the wave.

Deep down the blue
There swims a fish of silver
who drinks the chagrin in my cave.

Its shadow haunts
in my sorrow; it cleans up
hallucinations of my faith.

My youth cannot weep
for tears are wrunged
by the ephemeral joy-

A tremor of the cheeks,
a transient "smile"
on the surface of my soul.

My memories are hidden
in the underwater grave
guarded by a silver fish.

Once my youth lived
but incarcerated in darkness
and suffocated by light.