Tuesday, April 30, 2019

NaPoWriMo Day 25


Lessons from Borneo
Do not enter a virgin forest,
Shouting and talking and laughing,
Piercing the music of the jungle
With your pointless chatter.

Do not mock the laws of the jungle
By comparing sun bears to dogs
By plucking flowers as you like,
By leaving a gap where there was once beauty.

With the locals, be kind and grateful.
Do not exploit their niceness or naïveté,
By bad mouthing them in your language when they’re trying to tell you something.
Listen, and you might learn a new thing or two.

Listen to instructions.
When you’re in a unknown land, become a clean slate,
Do not think your old ways always apply,
Do not smoke and stub whenever you like.

Be worth remembering,
By the monkeys and plants and people You encounter along the way.
Observe, ask, absorb.

Appreciate what you have come to see,
Whether it’s one endemic species or three.
Learn to say Hello and Thank You in the local language,
And finally, always remember to smile.

No comments:

Post a Comment