Digression On Your Possessions In Photos In A Suitcase comical poem 636 by Angela Lansbury

Suitcase. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright. 

Look around you. What do you love? 

What do love about this place?

Look around you. What do you have?

Can you pack it in one suitcase?

A baby arrives with nothing

But a lease for eighty years

And grandparents smiling faces

Hide years of wrinkles, tears and fears

A toddler owns a little world

A playpen and containing cot

But wants to walk and see outside

Treads on across the toys he's got

A bride wears one white wedding dress

It's new, but only for that day

When tomorrow pushes along

That dress is stored, sold, thrown away

Photos snap great but brief minutes

When she walks in the procession

Marks her brief point of progression

Photo's her best, brief, possession

You see the groom has got the bride

The bride and ghosts have got the groom

They invite whole village strangers

Or two close friends in one room

The president or king arrives

Big banners all around unfurled

Egyptians built big pyraminds

To show the world they ruled their world

When I take a long holiday

My world's packed in a small suitcase

My handbag holds bold eyeliners

Beside a mask to hide my face

Now that I'm retired, I'm hoarding 

Yes, I ought to be downsizing

And swap or sell my six bar stools

Buy one chair, which is reclining

After we're gone, clearance is called.

Front gardens convert to car parks

New owners change wood to marble, 

Paint walls, dark to light, light to dark

So, in a century or two

What will be left of me and you?

Who cares. I don't. We can't. Yet, your

Future, reader, Gran won't forget

So I'm leaving you this poem

A legacy. Share, re-read, see

This link you need, to you from me

To last, for all eternity.

-ends-

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Finding Lost Items comic poem 510 by Angela Lansbury

 

Lost and Found office, Baker Street. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

When you are not looking

Missing items can be found

On top of the car or bookcase

Or lying on the ground

The shoes beneath under the bed

Or the glasses on your head

Or underneath your chair

When you've looked everywhere

The key's under the mat

The credit card inside your hat

The doorkey in your pocket

Outside the door - you forgot to lock it

Your dinner in the picnic basket

Everything's in the right place

Probably where you left it

Your wet swimsuit's in your suitcase

Your wet swimsuit's full of mould

Insects are fighting in the flour

I know the clock's here somewhere

'cos it's chiming every hour

You accuse me of taking it

You have looked from left to right

I suspect you of breaking it

It's there! Hiding in plain sight!

Problems hadn't gone away

But I solve them everyday

If you don't put things away

They're where you left them yesterday

-ends-

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Suitcase Insecurity comic poem number 465 by Angela Lansbury

 Suitcases. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Whever you go

Wherever you are

Secure your suitcase

But also the car

A suitcase in a car

I must say

Is not safe when

Your car's towed away

You can sew a zip

Inside your pocket

But that's no use

If they take the whole jacket

So buyer beware

The thief doesn't care

He's not like Snnta

With goodies to share

If the thief is arrested

He's bailed and then

He's back at the station

Stealing again

So buyer beware

Traveller beware

Don't say no-one warned you

My dears, please take care

It isn't enough

Just to stay alive

Make sure that your chattels

Also surive

When you have travelled

To so many places

With fond memories

Of kind, smiling faces

Never confidently leave

Your bags all alone

Be glad to arrive

With your bags safe at home

Now you know what you should

And you shouldn't do

I don't know all of you

But I care about you

I hope you will heed

The words that I say

And have a safe

Barricaded, happy holiday.

-ends-

Pack, Pack, Bring My Case Back! comic poem 436 by Angela Lansbury

 

Suitcases. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Pack, pack. Pack, pack. Take out. Put back

Consult the list. Nothing must lack

The trouble's weight, like a coal sack

I'm worried it will break my back

I'll end up home helped by a crutch

The reason is I've packed too much.

I set off with all that I love

I lost a shoe but gained a glove

I seem to do this every time

Once claimed a case which wasn't mine

Next time I'll make sure that we share

Can't say, I've not a thing to wear

Once we travelled to the stations

Both on business, different nations

Both together to the airport

Gave matched luggage no second thought

Our only thought, 'Are we on time?'

We both made it, so all's fine.

Matching black suitcases - his switched with mine!

My bag will have pink blooms next time.

Because, you see, I can't wear a pair 

Of Calvin Klein's men's underwear

And you can guess, he won't get far

Doing business in high heels and a lacy bra

Luckily he ran straight back

To give me what he knew I'd lack

It wasn't for a farewell kiss

But my suitcase I'd sorely miss.

-ends-

True story. My husband and I had matching suitcases, black, and both had departure times the same day. He picked up my suitcase. The way he tells the story, I picked up his.

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Moving Out, Moving On comic poem 359 by Angela Lansbury

What is in all those 200 boxes?

Eight years of living here and more before

There's ours, and mine, and his, and whose is this?

Moving, insurance, storage, cost us dear

I know that the right word should be dearly

Dear is an adjective, dearly's a verb, 

Clearly the word, but no time for grammar

Container leaves, LaLa courier van's heard

We've more to pack, our motorbike gets lunch

Sushi eaten sitting on a suitcase

We've more cardboard storage boxes to fill

Lined up outside our former now locked place

Where have your lovely bookcases gone?

The new renter's agent, smiling, stops, asks

I wish we could have been in touch with her

Maybe for friendly win-win deals or tasks

We paid to have new shelves towed, thrown away

I wish we'd had time to sell or leave them

We'd one month to cancel bills, pack, and go

Could not sell nor save the landfill from them

We've now moved in a serviced apartment

Busy with goodbyes and minor matters

We paid for a large place with a kitchen

Clean and neat 'til filled with all our clutter

We have to throw half six boxes away

Going home on a plane with three cases

Rescued my water jar from lobby niche!

(But later left milk in the hotel fridge!)

Three more hours packing on Cashew landing

Keep thinking, hoping, we've nearly done it

We are still packing, sealing, cardboard cases

Front door keys gone, but I need a toilet

Luckily curious residents pass

See suitcases piled in the downstairs hall

They stop to ask, 'Moving?' I answer, 'Yes.

May I use your toilet! Thanks!' 'Not at all."

I have to take off my shoes at their door

Protect from dirt their clean, cool, white tiled floor

I might not do this next year in Europe

But I know it's this way in Singapore

Their shoe rack has a handy seat on top

You sit to take off, or put on your shoes

Every day I travel I learn new ways

Some special, new, smart things to buy and choose

I just made brand new friends, hello, goodbye

Brief pleasures ease the pain of moving out

Pool, coconut palms, cockroaches, all end

We'll make new friends in the new place, no doubt.

-ends-

Copyright Angela Lansbury 2023. Please share links to your favourite poems.

Successfully Over-Packing And Unpacking A Suitcase comic poem 232 by Angela Lansbury

Suitcase and key ring. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Were you better at this than me?

Yes, years ago I had no clue

Now I've packing PhD

I pack all socks inside the shoes

 

A suitcase like a bedroom drawer

Take out one item, then you find

It shuts the way it did before

Swimsuit or night dress left behind?

No, everything is in its place

I'm short of space so I confess

Just one thing more, I weigh my case

I wear a third reversible dress

For our return I have a list

What might be lost? Now I can see

An image, to fret about what's missed

Only one shoe. one sock, dear me

I find lost shoes under the bed

Under pillows a nightdress

A picture in my phone and head

Will haunt long flights, nightmare distress

A kind air hostess took my jacket

Wrapped round duty free gifts I'd bought

Because I had no room to pack it

Have I learned all the things I taught?

Yes, I count bags at every stage

Arrive with bags, caps, coats in threes!

But one thing makes the others rage

Because I've lost the suitcase keys!

-ends-

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