Airports and Accounting (poetry)

Airports and Accounting

Airports in all the countries

Are usually where I do accounting.

That is because they mark a start and an end.

“What did we do?” and “this way goes to where?”

Are those that waiting halls make me ask at airports.

“That was good, this was wrong,”

“Stopping there fortunately halted

Even worse damage.”

“Or this is the beginning of a new life,

We shouldn’t repeat the same errors.”

Then we get on and fly,

We go up and down

Just like what we do in all the life.

We land on somewhere ultimately

And resume our lives

From where we left.

It is as if we lift an overturned turtle,

And move it back to the upright position

Somewhere else.

In other words, all the things that we packed and loaded

Will continue to be our burden,

And at the same time will be our top security refuge.

The trains of thought

Would never stop on the airplane,

Even if they turn the light off and on

During landing.

Call yourself as a lucky person,

If there is somebody

Who would move you back to the upright position

After you would be overturned like the turtle.

You can do bad accounting if you wish,

You can even cook the books.

But the price you pay on your burden

Will get heavier and heavier by this way.

Airports in all the countries

Are usually where I do accounting.

Here is the customs, here is the passport, here is the arrival exit,

Here is a plan to resume the life from where we left.

Ulaş Başar Gezgin

September 29, 2014

Gezgin, U.B. (2017). You, I and Our Son - Poems of Peace, Longing and Love from Vietnam

POETRY BOOKS IN ENGLISH AND OTHER LANGUAGES / İNGİLİZCE VE DİĞER DİLLERDE ŞİİR KİTAPLARI 1. Gezgin, U.B. (2017). Yağmur Sonrası/ After Rain / После дождя / Diğer Dillerdeki Gezgin Şiirleri: Rusça, İngilizce, Tayca, Azerbaycanca, Vietnamca, İspanyolca ve Japonca [Gezgin’s Poetry in Other Languages: Russian, English, Thai, Azerbaijani, Vietnamese, Spanish and Japanese]. 2. Gezgin, U.B. (2017). You, I and Our Son - Poems of Peace, Longing and Love from Vietnam 3. Gezgin, U.B. (2017). For Those Who Will Sail Across The Oceans: An Explorer’s Vietnam Poems. 4. Gezgin, U. B. (2007). On a Tablet – English Poems by Ulas Basar Gezgin. Lulu.