Windows on the World

Day 15: 'take a look at @StampsBot, and become inspired by the wide, wonderful, and sometimes wacky world of postage stamps.  Stamps are a quasi-lyrical, quasi-bizarre look into what different cultures (or at least their postal authorities) hold dear.'

When I was a child in the 60s,  nearly all my friends had a stamp collection, and we would buy packets of used stamps from all over the world. In a pre-digital age it was a rare glimpse into exotic foreign life.

I remember the excitement 

Of each new, small, transparent packet,

With its teasing coloured jumble 

Of tiny child-sized squares, oblongs, rare triangles,

Promising new discoveries, or swapsies. 

Seated at the table - album, pot of glue at the ready -

The packet would be carefully opened,

Tipped out in a cascade of flimsy paper,

Ready for sorting into countries of origin. 

Basic detective skills were needed

To figure out Magyar, Polska, Nippon,

Even Ireland hid itself as Eire;

An early lesson in the democracy of language.

Once sorted, I would take each country in its turn, 

Open my album at its designated page,

Holding my breath, fingers figuratively crossed,

Hoping they'd all be new.

Each country was arranged into sets

By their pictures and denominations,

A risky strategy when errant stamps

Had left no room for the new ones. 

Once all were glued in place,  

Or back in their packet for swapping with friends,

I would flick through the album, 

Drinking in the character of each country, 

Assumed entirely from the pictures it had chosen,

Never thinking I could ever travel there. 

As the years went on

There'd be more to swap and less to glue,

And other pastimes overtook the excitement 

Of those transparent packets. 

But still the album stayed on the shelf

With its bulging, glue-stiffened pages, 

Whispering to me their call of the exotic. 

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