Display what you’ve gathered from antiquity?
Forgetting paper goes yellow and crisp,
Inviting cockroaches, termites and silverfish?
But what the heck?
You give them one last look before shredding:
Your first tickets to fly, passes for boarding,
Cathay Pacific, Air Moldova, Aeroflot.
Passes for hotels, museums, tours,
And it all comes back to you.
The chilly Easter weekend walk in Odesa,
The Black Sea seashells you still have,
Beachcomber that you are. The comedy
At the Opera
Theatre. 192 steps up Potemkin Stairs!
The creaky windows of dimly-lit Dracula’s Castle,
The red clay tiles of Medieval Brasov. How picturesque!
The grandeur and natural beauty of the Carpathians,
The children’s laughter at the Council Square fountain.
The scent of Egyptian mummies in Budapest Museum
Fine wines and horses in Puszta. The tranquility of the Danube.
Tour guide Anne, whose English teacher in the 40s was a Pinoy,
Sharing he mustn’t be missed at home for they were a dozen boys!
Gently-rolling tumbleweeds on the way to Hisarlık
Western movie tracks playing in your sleepy head.
The biting wind, piercing through your cheeks
Like punishment for the ruins of Troy under your feet.
Sweet Turkish delights in the Grand Bazaar,
Not to forget: “Don’t touch if you’re not going to buy!”
The blue Iznik tiles of the grand Blue Mosque,
Maps, travel guides, phrasebooks, postcards, pictures,
Lehman’s instructions, a Turkish friend:
“Never take a cab. Walk to this otel instead.”
Thirty years after. Did you ever think
Of digitization? Gone are paper and ink?
Papers unrecognizable by a swipe generation?
Yes, you did. For you slowly transitioned
From film to digital cameras, from negatives to CD copies,
Then from CDs and memory sticks to cloud storage.
What else is to come when you have so little left?
Oh, well… Just keep your papers and reminisce
When you get to 100 with arthritic fingers,
Unable to scroll and swipe on a piece of tech!
MLJ/25/07/2025/ShredEmAll
The creaky windows of dimly-lit Dracula’s Castle,
The red clay tiles of Medieval Brasov. How picturesque!
The grandeur and natural beauty of the Carpathians,
The children’s laughter at the Council Square fountain.
The scent of Egyptian mummies in Budapest Museum
Fine wines and horses in Puszta. The tranquility of the Danube.
Tour guide Anne, whose English teacher in the 40s was a Pinoy,
Sharing he mustn’t be missed at home for they were a dozen boys!
Gently-rolling tumbleweeds on the way to Hisarlık
Western movie tracks playing in your sleepy head.
The biting wind, piercing through your cheeks
Like punishment for the ruins of Troy under your feet.
Sweet Turkish delights in the Grand Bazaar,
Not to forget: “Don’t touch if you’re not going to buy!”
The blue Iznik tiles of the grand Blue Mosque,
Maps, travel guides, phrasebooks, postcards, pictures,
Lehman’s instructions, a Turkish friend:
“Never take a cab. Walk to this otel instead.”
Thirty years after. Did you ever think
Of digitization? Gone are paper and ink?
Papers unrecognizable by a swipe generation?
Yes, you did. For you slowly transitioned
From film to digital cameras, from negatives to CD copies,
Then from CDs and memory sticks to cloud storage.
What else is to come when you have so little left?
Oh, well… Just keep your papers and reminisce
When you get to 100 with arthritic fingers,
Unable to scroll and swipe on a piece of tech!
MLJ/25/07/2025/ShredEmAll
No comments:
Post a Comment