Friday, March 1, 2013

PASSPORT HAIKU No. 1

I've recently had to retire a trusty travel companion of 10 years...my passport.

I love passports and dread to think of a time when the thump of stamp on paper is a thing of the past. That irregular beat of arrival and departure. The audible start of something, or the coming to an end. Welcome, stranger...welcome home.

I find the randomness of where the stamps land a bit delicious...watching the immigration officer thumbing through pages, looking for a space that's good for a thumping. What will it land next to? Which places will it connect? Which times? What's that seeping through from the page behind?



Each page of my old passport is one of a kind. As are yours. They're like fingerprints. A unique trace left behind by a decade of going this way and that.

Some of them are masterpieces. Like the one above which I'm honouring with the world's first* passport Haikus. Please enjoy them with my compliments (or apologies if they're really bad):

Condensed milk coffee
Looooong exposure on monks’ robes
Could stay here a while

Urban eruption
Cleavers rule the wet markets
This treasure island

Espresso. Life. Style.
Gelato is just ice cream
Old stuff everywhere

The clang of street woks
Tuk Tuk, Chattachuk, Patpong
Neon, off, on, off…

Luang Prabang. Hong Kong. Rome. Bangkok.

*May or may not be true.

5 comments:

  1. All true :)
    ...although that randomness drives me crazy ("short trip"... ) . Within certain boundaries I like order... because I thrive on chaos.

    OF COURSE you would write like this... Mr Perfect... :)

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  2. Oh, Dusk...stop it!

    I thought you thrived on fuzzy logic.

    ;)

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  3. ...AND you listen!! That is insane. I remember saying this. But it wasn't an integral part of a conversation. It's just that... you listen to and see everything...

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  4. Watching that collage of stamps and stickers come together as your passport fills is indeed a treat! And like you have just outlined, tells a story of memories and adventures!

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    Replies
    1. It is a real treat watching them pile up and around each other, isn't it, Tash?

      Every page like a fingerprint!

      Happy travels,

      Ben

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