O Drowning Souls! Poem by Yiling Ding

We reach, reach, reach...
Our fingertips can almost touch
the surface of the water's end
They're yearning to feel the sky
To make ripples in that
unbroken surface

We struggle for air, for flight
But then my strength fails me again
And we sink back into
that infinite, bottomless
darkness of water

I've swum upwards
for an eternity
My mind and body
in unending pain
But still we cling onto the
moon's reflection

Oh how we yearn to see the
true moon
that hangs so proudly in the sky
The sweet scent of air
and the softness of grass

But for eternity
we are Condemned
In this dark confinement
of unending water
Drowning, drowning
even as we move toward the light

For the light condemns us
to the greatest pain
of knowing sweetness
and never
tasting it.

O drowning souls
may you sink into the darkness
with the comfort
of never,
Never
knowing light!