Kendrick Loo, Singapore
The things you see are real, but they are not a complete seeing.
—Frederick Lenz
To listen past the cicadas
is to hear the unseen. How
the tree lies supine, singing
its ode to the life it led. How
its return to the earth after
emerging in upwards ascent
is done with practiced kindness.
Look how the moss blankets
it in final rest. Listen to the birds
sing of years given to cradling
nest after nest. The air is scented
with loam, herald of smaller life.
So calmly the forest goes about
the tree, lush and wild. Rocking
the tree to its roots, as if it was
becoming the forest once more.
Kendrick Loo is an English & Management undergraduate studying at the University of St Andrews. Born in Singapore, his poetry is interested in interrogating family, masculinity, and the natural world. His writing has been published in Tayo Literary, Empty Mirror, and L'Ephemere Review, amongst others. When he is not busy with his dissertation on environmental fantasy, he can be found tweeting at @stagpoetics
