Jonathan Pung 2D'06

The Helpless Tree

I have been rooted here

for nearly a hundred years.

Blessed with the gift of height

along with sight beyond sight,
I witness man’s crimes

with the passing of time.

My siblings were unable to rebel

when they were being felled.
We help to prevent soil erosion

and provide life-giving oxygen,

but they were still slain

by those birdbrains.

I was there looking,

unable to do anything
Though I may be just a tree,

but building up within me

is an immense rage

that increases with age.

If I was granted the ability

of an increased agility,

man and his machinery

would be a mockery,

for my allies and I,

would crush them like flies!

To have even thought of that,

I must have been mad.

To have lived this far,

I ought to thank my lucky stars.

For man and his machines

could fell me at their whim.

Epilogue
My poem was inspired by the tallest heritage tree in the botanic gardens, the Terminalia subspathulata. I imagined myself as the tree, rooted to the ground for nearly a century, watching on helplessly as man commit atrocities against nature. Though the tree may seem tall and mighty, it is in actual fact, powerless when pitted against man and his machines.