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Life Arts    H4'ed 5/19/23

Beijing Airport: Coughing Up the Contraband (poem)

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John Hawkins
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'The Ugly American as EFL teacher'
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When I was in China, you could hear two tears drop,

a soft yin and yang expostulation of woe.

I implored, Please don't throw my books away (sob, sob).

The Beijing airport guard looked at me and said, No.

He was taciturn. I said, Please, these books are pure --

Nietzsche's full, Lolita, Architecture as Space,

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love -- Bore! --

he yawned -- solly, I hate Eengish; so much manure.

Ha! A yak shat on my shoe at the Great Wall. He laughed.

Oh, capeeshamente on that, huh? No books.

Can't afford to fly them home, I wept. No life raft

in his eyes. I tried hard not to think, fuckin g**ks.

Istanbul to Port Moresby, places in between,

teaching EFL for ka ching-a-ling-dong-ding.

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John Hawkins Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelance journalist and poet currently residing in Oceania.

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