X-Diary Entry (Wishful Thinking) Poem by Edgar Eslit

A week before Christmas in 2005
I visited a friend who’s under
probation for a case
he was incarcerated.
Right after I got out from his cell
I couldn’t help myself but wonder
if he could sustain his situation, the heat,
and the isolation. Not to mention the pain
and loneliness and the agony of lengthy
case trials. Can he bear the pain?

That in mind, I brought the thought home.

Came the morning of December 24
Our neighbor was cleaning his fish bowl.
He got rid of its smell after he lost
the pair of golden carp in it.
Since he got one left
He decided to put it in their pond

What I saw brought my friend to mind

It’s a worthwhile experience
Watching the golden carp freed
from that glass bowl to the pond.
You can see her flip, twirl
and far, far, she deeply swam.
I could almost hear
her heart throbbing, palpitating
and gasping to its limit.
Happy, happy, there she went flipping.
But would it not be happier
if she was allowed to join the other fishes
on the river?
If I own that fish,
She wouldn’t only be happy.
There on the river
She’ll be happier and free

If I only have my way, this Christmas, he'll be free.