The River Poem by john tiong chunghoo

i try to stretch my neck
to see where the river ends
only to be jolted by a pain
that the furthest my eyes
could reach is where
the sky meets the river.
you are taken by the sky,
your shadows gone,
claimed by its boundlessness.

i try to gauge how far
my voice could reach
only to be overwhelmed
by angst, that you are
too far away, further
than this river could reach,
too far to be able to
hear my sorrow-ridden voice
lost in the gush trailing this river.

the river sent you
to a neverland,
a one way journey
that has shuttled my soul
between stark reality and
self-consoling imaginations.

hopefully you would
rise like the vapours
to the kingdom above
and come down to cool
this earth so chokeful of
unfulfilled missions and dreams
and to send that tide
to let me feel the joy
that you might just be coming back to me.