Introducing a new series of poems by Julian Matthews. Julian is a writer and Pushcart-nominated poet published in The American Journal of Poetry, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Borderless Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Dream Catcher Magazine, Live Encounters Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and The New Verse News, among others. He is a mixed-race minority from Malaysia and lived in Ipoh for seven years. Currently based in Petaling Jaya, he is a media trainer and consultant for senior management of multinationals on Effective Media Relations, Social Media and Crisis Communications. He was formerly a journalist with The Star and Nikkei Business Publications Inc
Link: https://linktr.ee/julianmatthews
By Julian Matthews
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If a tree falls in the city and kills a man, injures two others, damages 17 vehicles,
disrupts the monorail service, and it’s caught on dashcams and smartphones
and everyone was around to see it – did anyone still hear it make a sound?
Did it whimper like a dying dog, or did it weep like a willow,
or did it shudder and shake as if it was in an earthquake?
Did they hear it cry out when it knew it had murdered someone:
‘Mama! Just killed a man!’
Did they listen to its confession as it lay there breathing its last?
Did they call for a priest to give it its last rites?
Did the emergency response team check for a pulse?
Did the tree commit suicide?
Did it leave a last letter tucked in a branch somewhere?
Did it give up knowing the end of its kind was coming?
Did it long for the forest in the sky?
Was this a protest?
Did it whisper a final prayer for mother nature,
for a reckoning, for change, for a revelation?
15 billion trees are cut down each year by humans.
No one hears it.
A tree fell in the city.
It made the news.
First published in Men Matters Online Journal, Issue 9, Malaysia
Note: Massive tree falls across busy road in Malaysian capital
15 billion trees cut down every year
