Self-Portrait with Carp Fish by Sabrina Guo (16, New York)

I gaze at the goldfish 
              ​in his luminous glass tank,
watching him swirl through 

              his bone-made castle,
up and around
              like a waltz.

---

Oh, how many questions I have 
              for you: Do you ever wish 
to be lifted beyond the skies?

              Up, up, and up! I wonder
whether you desire to become
              ​a magical creature, like the Carp Fish 

I once read about in a book
              of Chinese mythology: the Carp Fish 
swimming upstream,
              against the river’s current

before reaching the Dragon’s Gate.
              I fear we are quite different--
you, pounds lighter, smaller body 

​
              and smaller brain, who makes do 
with what you’re given, no concept
              of fear, no fear of being tested

by fate. Maybe we don’t have to be so different.
              I can choose hope over despair--
escape the confines of my self-made tank. 

              ​Is freedom, my little fish, is it no more
than this state of mind?

​