Best Duty Free Poems
A crisp, cold morning in Hyde Park,
and he is waiting for his date.
As joggers jog and poodles bark,
the girl's unconscionably late.
He paces London's crocused heart,
as traffic booms in Piccadilly:
he's practicing that English art
of seeming calm, while feeling silly.
One final tryst beside the lake,
in front of the Eternal Boy:
a parting kiss, for old times' sake ...
she's stood him up? Or playing coy?
The hotel clerk purrs sympathy
when summoned on the mobile phone.
By now, she'll be in Duty Free.
Well, there it is. This Bird Has Flown.
He tries to feign the jaunty airs
of a striped suit on a sandwich sortie,
but doing drily debonaire's
not easy when you're fat and forty.
He tramps the lonely, flat green mile
to Green Park Tube's unlovely portal,
but perks up with a cheeky smile -
well, for a week he was immortal!
Categories:
duty free, romantic,
Form:
Quatrain
Sometimes music
takes you away
a few bars of Sebelius
cuts through the clutter of
school lunch preparation.
and I'm in the fiords
the soul home
I've never seen.
I know little of Finland
and first met Matti
at a meeting in Dallas
where he a two day visitor
argued with the cabby
over the best way downtown.
When we arrived,
he gave an excellent tour
of the corner
where JFK ended.
Later, another meeting.
this time in Wisconsin
as we shared our duty free.
he spoke of his son's summer job
folk dancing on a ferry
crossing the Gulf of Bothnia.
Running the next morning
in the cold spring air
I realized
the big flat winged raptor
high overhead
was an eagle.
Chatting with our four year-old
he explains
that although Godzilla
is a boy's name
she laid eggs
one remains
and do I know
what attack means?
Categories:
duty free, friendship, music, my child,
Form:
Free verse
Soon all things will owe themselves to progress
and nature will neither wane nor wax
accosted by bulbs and cog-laden streams.
Children in god-awful Christmas jumpers
gather around the May-pole to watch
the leaves become what they’re deprived of.
We are taught to fear puddles, duty free
purchases, and heroes speak in slant rhyme.
Thermodynamics washes the feet
of tired old gravity, entropic
kisses to keep loved ones close; parody—
if absence does what it does, we should leave
and never return to this place of progress
where bluebells can’t frost and starlings sing falsetto.
Categories:
duty free, science, visionary,
Form:
Sonnet
Waves of anticipated distance- cheerfulness and goodwill
reasons to part quite enormous
reflected in displayed emotions
long hugs, passionate waves, incomplete smiles and contact exchanges.
Queues and checkpoints, controls and duty free sales
all activities winding up in a goodbye
From the departure lounge, mothers with their kids walk
fathers with uptight faces already anticipating the next business moves
children in mental freedom roam and play
singles, so direct in focus to the flight entry’s aisle
unfortunately it’ll be an irreversible one
and an exit with a permanent stamp.
A calamity not even the tenders of coincidence anticipated
a disaster totally human in occurrence
forcing the Germanwings to get broken
by a hand unwilling to perish alone.
Exposure wasn’t enough to nurture a sense of humanity
education was weak to pump water on a soil of love
a hundred and fifty lives given to hades
without cause or reason, just on a platter of Gold
a well calculated crime beats the justification of a psychiatric malfunction
resulting to an all-lose situation
broken wings, lost lives and broken hearts
as once again, history stands still in black robes
for us all to say
goodbye our friends and adieu to our beloved children
Categories:
duty free, eulogy, farewell, funeral, grief,
Form:
Ode
“METROPOLIS BLUES”
The elemental wind
curls in from the north east,
sublime salon creations in
disarray, in grimy profusion
inventiveness subsides.
The town clock strikes out,
within ear shot, a bench seat plays
host to a cast of thousands.
Soon! succulent rotting form to be
replaced by concrete.
“A dental job needed
for those poor little mites?”
Corrugated iron
picturesque in shades of autumn,
rattling in regimental disorder,
a haunting requisition
for regeneration.
Rogue waves spill over the
quay, reducing feathered messengers
to squatters alms.
Honking horn for the many that
miss “Cross now.” Hot profanity
escapes in sheer frustration,
diamond studded ladies,
gents in pin stripe suits
reduced to gutter sniping,
intellectual street wise gnomes
aroused by verbal definition.
Skywards, elevated glass menageries, a
product of inner city germination casts out
buoyant clouds, plays
yo-yo with minute window cleaners,
perched precarious in prefabricated
isolation.
One does get lost in
Duty Free! Polyglots
strutting between glass cabinets,
exemplification of
exaggerated personification!
No English! Here, yet many tongues
in resonant sounds, reverberating
throughout the confused clamour.
Idiot in pearly white
“BMW” Snookered
in “Victoria Street”
came in “Off the black” Seven
points away, no consolation for
the hot “Mini Cooper”
all concerned carried away
under flashing lights.
“Cardless head banger” In
aggressive mood, his
four numbered digits he
had forgot, so the machine
decided to take the lot!
Shades of the fifties roll on
by, silver wheels impeccable
against an opaque sky.
“Boom boom ‘John Lee Hooker’”
drifts into contention
a competitive participant
within the metropolis;
as aren’t we all!!
© Harry J Horsman 2012
Categories:
duty free, angst, confusion,
Form:
Free verse
This is your last life, so what you don't agree? -
Born to move belongings, hug friends at the gate,
To buy some ibuprofen in duty free,
To nod at giggling Koreans, notice their traits.
This is your last body, a sound one-seat frame
Waiting in lounge to board for the hut above
Wait a little, baby, thirty-or-so lame
Years and you'll sit to laugh with Him who you love.
If you regret then only that you've seen
You grasp eternal truth hard and belated.
My new fringe does filter the world as a screen
Therefore it becomes a little less-hated.
Sit down and taste everything new that glistens.
If there's anything you can't see from the ground -
Research from above. There's a load not yet found
In last youth, this tough coordinate system.
Dance in your poems, with heels flick in a fling.
A party? No sleep for neighbors and friends hang
Here. And you are so beautiful with your bangs -
Geez, some idiot gets lucky this spring.
Categories:
duty free, poems, poetess, poetry, poets,
Form:
Here's a tale of the future, it's
Big, things from small parcels, bits
called Nanoparticles, new natural,
We'll dance their syncopation as normal,
Yes, "From little things big things grow!"
How far shall we with Nanos go?
Duty-free DIY helpful, it's
Our future ahead, Nano bits!
Categories:
duty free, future,
Form:
Free verse
I solemnly received my first toilet auger
As if it were a knight’s well-tempered sword.
It meant I’d passed my ninety-day audition,
And seemed to me a suitable reward.
And so began my tenure working maintenance
In the nasty nitty gritty of a toxic circumstance.
But I’d scored a small apartment, living duty-free,
So, it was time for starting over’s second chance.
A thousand plus apartments needed tending.
When a work ticket printed, I called dibs.
Seventy buildings built of brick and dreams.
I was privy to the skivvy in all those skeevy cribs.
I’ve encountered many silent tribal totems:
Hindu murti, Christian chi rho, Muslim script.
But no matter the religion of the trouble call,
For every useful purpose, I came suitably equipped.
There were feral cats, roaches, and bedbugs
Infesting hoarders’ floorspace wall-to-wall.
I dealt as best I could with the detritus,
But my biggest stress was over-night on-call.
While paying the price of complete independence
I may sometimes have hammered my thumb.
Though I may be a hack in the handyman trade,
I conducted my final campaign as my army of one.
And I came off a winner.
Categories:
duty free, allegory, work,
Form:
Burlesque
Be,
it's the eyes that draw me in
subtlety seductive
with a hint of fear
but freshly lit and duty free
there's no denying
a night time dream of deference
where drips of desire
tumble down
her dainty cheek
no torture, no suppression,
no midnight depression
as those nails start digging in
we cross
then re-cross
in a nearly perfect ring
toro
Pamplona fills the bill
she winks,
it's adoration
a soul she's climbing in
no spilling of tight held secrets
tonight no bull is going to win
Categories:
duty free, love,
Form:
Romanticism
Dazzled by the beauty of this earth ?
Unable to spend more then your worth?
Trust in the providence of God and
You will see, you can live duty free
Free from poverty as you
Regain your strength in nature;
Elastase moments of grace are here so
Elect to spend an hour in God's free space
Categories:
duty free, analogy,
Form:
Acrostic
The libraries are all down sized
The books are being digitized
They all come with audio feed
So, no need to learn to read
Just log in no extra fee
For all of it is duty free
Til but for dust the shelves are bare
And you can’t read what isn’t there
For print and paper last too long
Outlive the writers now long gone
And there seems no way to beat
The censors cry “delete – delete”
It doesn’t fit the narrative
Therefore, we cannot let it live
And with no copy, soft or hard
No one could truly quote the bard
Whose thoughts and words, double-entendre
Could rock the boat, put us asunder
John G. Lawless
©1/27/2023
Categories:
duty free, books, education, freedom, school,
Form:
Rhyme
He owned a pet chipmunk named Georgie McGee
who loved to eat almonds while counting to three
little by little he inched his way in
nuzzling sweetly right up to Quinn
who never thought squirrels could live duty free
He ravaged tomatoes and ate little leaves
while Quinnie reviewed every pet peeve
he dug up the flowers
and never did shower
as he squabbled and quabbled without a reprieve
He never did shoe him nor send him away
for happy go lucky would eat then make way
he ate from his finger
but never did linger
how old he was? well, he never did say !
Categories:
duty free, appreciation, humorous,
Form:
Limerick
on auto pilot in slow motion
my conveyor belt keeps moving
on a creaky carousel
aroused in boredom
suspended in apathy
a jester on weary shoulders keeps mocking
teasing and picking at scabs
thorny wounds from too much baggage
have abandoned rose petals
in the wilderness of making
I wonder whether I should pick up the luggage
or claim compensation for lost property
yet hesitation sets in
as it is not clear what to do with the proceeds
sometimes I would give a penny for thoughts
of joyful anticipation but fear that the truth
would be unreal
amongst the lonely passage of time
there is hope however
because these days airports never close
flights of fancy can be delusional
dereliction of duty-free travel is a scam
only I can choose purpose and destination
before eventually my ashes end up in a Teddy bear
for care free travelling
Categories:
duty free, confusion,
Form:
Free verse
yesterday I walked home in the rain
and forgot
for thirty minutes
that I was grown up
and in heels, business dressed
and straightened hair,
and remembered
something free
locked into the
sky like moonstone
murky and luminous
a tousled beauty buried
in routines and duties
no umbrella, thirty minutes
a woman in transit
without belonging
tax free.
Categories:
duty free, appreciation, encouraging, freedom, imagery,
Form:
Free verse
There is a force inside us all,
A kind of spirit wind.
Its energy moves within our bones,
It grows our hair
And heals our wounds,
The boon of life to humankind.
This urge that surges through our veins
And gives our bodies breath
Is not a gift that's duty-free.
The charge is large,
Ironically,
The price we pay for life is death.
Categories:
duty free, death, life,
Form:
Verse