How many days and weeks have gone by…

Since I entered this cocoon of a busy mind?

Since then, what suffering has come to pass?

Which corner of the world has been destroyed?

Forgetfulness is the death of mankind,

Distractions bringing us to dark times.

Whilst praying for our Mother Earth…

We consume and pollute her body.

Who would have believed us in the past?

That natural resources will come to an end?

That the world is not ours for the taking?

That eight billion could be a human number?

The momentum of mindless consumption —

Is like a great oil tanker that is hard to turn.

It needs for us to stop and carry on stopping —

For towards the horizon… rocky shores loom.

For just one hour, I remember to act wisely,

Then for two weeks, I forget to even remember.

For one day, I remember the whole of the world,

For two years, I only think of my world.

It is with sadness that I now contemplate…

That many are in the same sad situation.

We are too busy and distracted to look up,

We think small, not large, not kind, not far.

Now that these words have been written down,

May they be a bookmark for me to remember.

May they inspire me to turn a fresh new page,

Not add chapters to volumes of forgetfulness.

— Luan Dinh

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