Moving Back to Jamaica

A blog about my Move Back to Jamaica after 20+ years of living in the US. Most of the articles focus on the period from 2005-2009 when the transition was new, and at it's most challenging.

Friday, April 25, 2008

An Interesting Poem

I read the following poem emailed from a friend and I thought that it captured the essence of how small our country is, and how much of of a blessing that it is, in many ways.  (It's alos something else, but that's a topic for another post.)

A mouse looked through the crack
in the wall to see the farmer and
his wife open a package.

What food might this contain?"
The mouse wondered - - -
he was devastated to discover it
was a mousetrap.


Retreating to the farmyard,

the mouse proclaimed the warning :

There is a mousetrap in the house!
There is a mousetrap in the house!"


The chicken clucked and scratched,

raised her head and said,

"Mr.Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern
to you, but it is of no consequence
to me. I cannot be bothered by it."


The mouse turned to
the pig and told him,

"There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!"



The pig sympathized, but said, I am
so very sorry, Mr.Mouse, but there
is nothing I can do about it but pray.
Be assured you are in my prayers."

 

The mouse turned to
the cow and said

"There is a mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!"


The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse.
I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin
off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the
house, head down and dejected,
to face the farmer's mousetrap . . .
alone.


That very night a sound was heard throughout

the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.



The farmer's wife rushed to see
what was caught.   In the darkness,
she did not see it was a venomous
snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife.

 The farmer rushed her to the hospital,

and she returned home with a fever.


Everyone knows you treat a fever
with fresh chicken soup, so the
farmer took his hatchet to the
farmyard for the soup's main
ingredient.


But his wife's sickness continued,
so friends and neighbors came to
sit with her around the clock.



To feed them, the farmer
butchered the  pig.



The farmer's wife did not get well;

she died.


So many people came for her funeral,
the farmer had the cow slaughtered to
provide enough meat for all of them.


The mouse looked upon it all from
his crack in the wall with great sadness.

 

So, the next time you hear someone
is facing a problem and think it
doesn't concern you,

remember ----

when one of us is threatened,
we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life.

We must keep an eye out
for one another and make an extra
effort to encourage one another.


SEND THIS TO EVERYONE WHO
HAS EVER HELPED YOU OUT AND
LET THEM KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THEY ARE.




REMEMBER. . . . .




EACH OF US IS A VITAL THREAD


IN ANOTHER PERSON'S TAPESTRY;




OUR LIVES ARE WOVEN TOGETHER FOR A REASON.

 

One of the best things to hold
onto in this world is a FRIEND ! ! !

 


2 Comments:

At 4/25/2008 12:23 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Extremely poignant,instructive and applicable to the human condition in Jamaica.Indeed,and remarkably so,this poem has captured certain critical and essential aspects of Jamaican society.Specifically,extolling the virtue and philosophy that No man is an island and advocating or postulating a perspective,or,a view of, all for one and one for all, with interdependency,mutual existence,consensus and unity being the paramount ojectives with respect to the social fabric and tapestry called Jamaica.In an age of insularity,alienation, and crass materialism,it is certainly true that one of the best things to hold unto in this world is a friend.Again,an excellent poem which I will definitely pass on to a friend.Francis,thanks for sharing this instructive poem.

 
At 4/28/2008 9:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My own take on that poem is purely political. I think it illustrates the need for people to recognise that what you think may not affect you, can, if you do nothing about it. So when the PM fires the PSC in breach of the spirit of the constitution, we need to take heed, even if that action does not immediately affect us. You never know how it will catch you.

 

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