Daryl Li, Singapore
[1]
what compels me to box you in
these borders and these instants
to flatten the tangled fact of you
for the decadent act of reproducing ghosts
what compels me to prejudice histories
technological wonders artificed
a hephaestic bias against your unnoticed journey
the slow account of your being
[2]
after the apocalypse
after every catastrophe every crisis conjured
they climb again atop manmade shapes and meanings
embracing the long-absent silence
and the disfigured shape of this earth
finding new geometries and new randomnesses
sunlight in new places
in this age after language after images after time
[3]
sometimes a vision like this one comes unannounced
unexpected beings that have always existed
and will always exist in the negative of your imagination
perhaps there are ghosts here
written into the papery bark that comprise
its dense bone its textured truth
ghosts that understand what it is to be a shadow
cast by the gnomon of a sundial
standing in elongated time
[4]
should i die let me be consumed by the earth absorbed
by wood tendrils that wrap around me encasing me in filth
let me be eaten by fungus by lice by decomposers
what am i after all but roots and carbon every language
every word when broken down becomes letters becomes
elements leaving not a trace of what had come before
[5]
tell me of the temperament of each seedling and the name
of every blossom tell me of the way the sun falls on bark
and bud tell me about your library of plants down
to smallest cellular detail down to grit and grime
instruct me in ways of care and acts of tenderness
impart to me methods botanical
the promise of a life lived slowly
imperceptibly passing through the mulch of time
Daryl Li is a writer based in Singapore. He was longlisted for the Australian Book Review Calibre Essay Prize and Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize. He has also won a Golden Point Award for his fiction. His work has been published in NANG, Gastronomica, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, OF ZOOS, and so-far. He was a writer-in-residence at the Singapore Botanic Gardens under a programme by the National Arts Council, Singapore, and took part in the Singapore International Film Festival Youth Jury and Critics Programme.