Undocumented

The Rain in Spain

By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 15, 2020

Undocumented

Last September
In Pittsfield
U.S. Post Office
Surrendered my passport
Felt like a prisoner
Under house arrest
Still had a few months
Every ten years
Back to when I was a teen
Me on Dad’s
Wanted my own
Bal à Versailles
First time I saw Paris
All those decades
Europe, Africa, and China
Never below Rio Grande
Canada lots of time
Felt naked without it
These past months an alien
Less than real citizen
Card carrying Americans
Born in the U.S.A.
Try to prove that
In the era of Trump
Add to that COVID
No end of paranoia
Somewhere in Philly
Belly of the beast
Heart of bureaucracy
Uncivil servants
Fate in their hands
Today it arrived
Some thirteen weeks later
Bright spanking new
Good to go
But where exactly
Right now
Would you get on a plane
Totally insane
Might yet happen
Here, there, everywhere
London, Paris and Berlin
Opera in Vienna
Rain in Spain
Trattoria in Trastevere
Venetian vaporetto
Rhine on Harvest Moon
Schnapps with Dexter
Port in Porto
Dear old friends
Theater and art
Never saw Greece
Israel or Egypt
In my dreams at least
Anything is possible
Come fly with me
Up, up and away
Hope for a better day

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Reader Comments

"I just got mine but had to pay an additional 75 bucks otherwise it was coming in March I sent it in in September also"

Posted By: Matuschka on 12-16-2020, 08:55 am
"That is totally unacceptable! But it is mind-boggling what we must accept these days"

Posted By: Barbara Ingber on 12-16-2020, 08:52 am
"Got mine a couple of years ago! North Adams PO. Picture et al. Of course I’m not going anywhere except the big one, so having a passport is just a hedge against the camp."

Posted By: Jane Hudson on 12-16-2020, 07:27 am
"No journalist should ever be without an up-to-date passport, but then that's why you in good faith sent it away for renewal. Hope you got all the extra pages. The government is going to start charging an arm or two for adding them down the road. And who knows where we all might have to go? We live in such a fluid circumstance"

Posted By: Lynn Rosen on 12-15-2020, 09:01 pm
"Charles: I'm sorta in the same boat Passport-wise. Jeannette and moi made the Egypt gig, but flunked out of Israel. Too many people getting wasted with metal slugs for so long it was crazy to think about going, at least for us. I kept saying those people are nuts. Greece just seemed a bridge too far (although my former father-in-law was Greek) When my passport renewal date arrived , I said Hell, I'll be 90 next year, what the Hell are you thinking about Jack?? So I passed. The middle except for Egypt Jeannette and I spent two weeks in Cairo, Alexandria and the Valley of Kings. You want antiquities , Egypt has them. I may not travel abroad any more. Those 10 hour airplane flights leaves me wishing I never made the trip in the first place... "but beside that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"."

Posted By: Jack Lyons on 12-15-2020, 06:27 pm
"Love that, Charles. Being old these daze, I think of where I haven't been. I barely go beyond Ellsworth. Carbon footprint. Maybe carbon handprints or body prints would be more compelling. I have vowed not to fly ever again. Private jets on our local tarmac all summer. I used to be a bit part of that. It was fun, but we had some scary times. Got to know the pilots: 1. Lost all nav equipment once with Jay Rockefeller's parents on the plane. 2. Had to land in NY and 5 of us took a taxi to Boston in the middle of the night. Freezing. Recently (8 years?)I flew from Bar Harbor to NYC on a Rockefeller jet with a bunch of rugs rolled up like tired wait-listed passengers. Weather awful. Wondered about a possible report: The jet, owned by David Rockefeller, Sr. blah, blah crashed on its way from BH, ME to West Chester County, NY. Damaged in the accident were rugs valued at 5 million dollars. The sole passenger has not been identified. The pilot did not know why she was on the plane. She was rumored to have befriended several rugs before the accident. Next of kin would not be surprised."

Posted By: Sydney on 12-15-2020, 06:13 pm