The Way Forward: Clouds on the Sea, A Poem by Ruth Dallas
1.I walk among men with tall bones,
2. With shoes of leather, and pink faces,
3. I meet no man holding a begging bowl,
4. All have their dwelling places.
5. In my country
6. Every child is taught to read or write,
7. Every child has shoes and a warm coat,
8. Every child must eat his dinner,
9. No one must grow any thinner,
10. It is considered remarkable and not nice
11. To meet bed bugs and lice.
12. Oh we live like the rich
13. With music at the touch of a switch,
14. Light in the middle of the night,
15. Water in the house as from a spring,
16. Hot, if you wish, or cold, anything
17. For the comfort of the flesh,
18. In my country. Fragment
19. Of new skin at the edge of the world’s ulcer.
20. For the question
21. That troubled you as you watched the reapers
22. And a poor woman following,
23. Gleaning ears on the ground,
24. Why should I have grain and this woman none?
25. No satisfactory answer has ever been found.
Stakeholders from institutions — government, academia, business, civil society — across countries should collaborate with each other to solve the systemic and emerging problems that affect the world order. But, with a country that focuses on thriving individually and pursuing hedonism, the issue of social divide continues:
12 Oh we live like the rich
13. With music at the touch of a switch,
14. Light in the middle of the night,
15. Water in the house as from a spring,
16. Hot, if you wish, or cold, anything
The domain of the known of every individual is predicated on what the country values; but while you adhere your values to your country, you neglect the responsibility of restructuring economic, social and political systems — the unknown — that breeded such observation:
20. For the question
21. That troubled you as you watched the reapers
22. And a poor woman following,
23. Gleaning ears on the ground,
24. Why should I have grain and this woman none?
25. No satisfactory answer has ever been found.
But herein lies also what the poet thinks is the catalyst to reach a consensus: Doubt. We all are aware of the issues and their consequences to the world like Lines 22–23. We shared a collective understanding, but we still weren’t able to translate such understanding into a collective action that can cease the systemic issues; we could only continue to offer a collective question where, unfortunately, the progress of the answer is described in Line 25. So, while people from developed countries live in order, the chaos that lurks in developing countries will continue to seep into their consciousness.
After all, we lived on the same planet.
