if fish in a fishbowl swim left and right,
if people on earth live through light and night,

and hands feed the fish with fishfood at bright,
and fate bestows people with fortune and pride,

when fish feel lucky and happy and well,
when people feel safe and health and wealth,

then water freezes to ice and fish see no light,
then peace turns to war and people must fight,

and coldness and darkness cast shadows like night,
and evil emerges with no ends in sight,

but someday the ice will break and crack,
but fighting will cease when much blood was shed,

if beams of light fall through the top of the ice,
if peace talks resume even fighting resides,

then summer returns to the fishbowl at last,
then peace is established and war is just past,

again will the hands feed the fishbowl at bright,
again will the peoples feel wealth and pride,

what a wonderful place for a fish to be,
what a marvelous world for all peoples to see,

in the end all fish live and all fish die,
we all know how, but I still wonder why.

Meng Qiu

thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. You can also visit me on www.mengcomment.com

6 Responses to “it’s the fish that live and die”

1. meng Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

   I wrote the poem above in direct response to the current war that makes me so sad.

   Meng

2. oxygon Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

   A beautiful, touching, and well crafted poem, meng. Ah, and what of that big/little word, why, the one that has stumped the philosophers through the ages? As for war, I’ve in part taken the easy way out of the dilemma by assuming a genetic propensity for humans to be violent—the beast that lurks in the shadows of the intellect that jousts unceasingly with rage and serenity. I have carefully observed humans act like animals when in anger and at the point of fighting, how they snarl and expose their teeth as if to let the enemy know, don’t tread on me! We have evolved, and our “cultivation” has mitigated the tendency toward violence, but how can we forget the carnage of the 20th Century, and not to forget the wars since time immemorial? Thanks for sharing this important poem.

   Best wishes,

   art

3. meng Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

   Thank you art for reading and leaving a thoughtful comment. I want to add your comment to my website with your permission, is it ok?

   Meng

4. oxygon Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

   Hello, meng. Yes, I am honored.

   Thank you,

   art

5. Roy Conant Says:
   January 4th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

   Hi Meng — What a thoughtful, thought-provoking, and beautiful poem, both for it’s content and its structure.

   I was feeling somewhat bad after my first comment to your first post thinking perhaps it was not a very thoughtful welcome to a site frequented and enjoyed by so many marvelous talents. Living (sometimes too much so… ) in the momence of the moment can have its drawbacks.

   About using one of my comments on your website, I would only like to know which one before you do — If it was my welcoming comment to your first post, by all means please do feel free to use it.

   Salut!

6. yann rolland Says:
   January 5th, 2009 at 12:44 pm

   Hi Meng, I feel a little sad reading your poem cause I see there are constant ups and down, when people live in peace they sometimes (or their governants ?) seek for war, and then they are killed or wounded and they wonder why…I enjoyed the metaphor of a fish in its bowl as we all are….We are mortal and as you say we even don’t know why….It makes us miserable and seeking for eternity with help of God…Thank you for the meaningful poem.

   yann

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.
Don't have an account with American Poems yet? Register now!