
nublaccsoul
the tronie speaks
kendrick loo
after johannes vermeer
after stripping away the line of the nose
the eyes i could be anyone
you wanted when vermeer painted me
he did not imagine others would step in
to my familiarity my story preserved
in linseed oil girl in sunlight i am
the quotidian the painter’s perspectives
bent by reflection my turban’s folds with its blues
mingled with gold they have held for centuries
between the illusion of youth and its nearness
as how colour partakes of its neighbour
i have been lavished by lazurite
been touched
by daubs of diffused lead loved
well
for the pearl but as the years pass the yellow
that touches me is beyond foreseen passings
not immune to time or its progression
i am looking back
mouth opened cracked like paint
the eyes i could be anyone
you wanted when vermeer painted me
he did not imagine others would step in
to my familiarity my story preserved
in linseed oil girl in sunlight i am
the quotidian the painter’s perspectives
bent by reflection my turban’s folds with its blues
mingled with gold they have held for centuries
between the illusion of youth and its nearness
as how colour partakes of its neighbour
i have been lavished by lazurite
been touched
by daubs of diffused lead loved
well
for the pearl but as the years pass the yellow
that touches me is beyond foreseen passings
not immune to time or its progression
i am looking back
mouth opened cracked like paint
Kendrick Loo is the reviews editor for Singapore Unbound. His poetry and literary reviews have been published in The West Review, EcoTheo, and fourteen poems, amongst others. He is currently working on a sequence of queer ecopoems, and can be found tweeting at @stagpoetics.