POETRY

The Ungrateful Tourist

free verse poetry

Finding the money to travel With family or alone, Is a privilege forgotten By many a blessed tourist.

To find themselves able to Experience exotic lands is A well-earned break from A hard years work.

To now soak up the sun, sea and sand, Travel the jungles, experience Waterfalls rivers and mountains, New flavours! or not, Rejuvenation, excitement, experience To last the tourist a lifetime.

Yet a new psyche has unfolded In the traveller’s mind, Piling on their demands To make their hosts Replicate all they experience In their regular daily lives. To take over authenticity and To colonise, to use their power Having “chosen” their establishment To spend hard-earned money, Vendors now expected to be Extremely grateful.

Subservience, not subservient enough For the spoilt holidaymaker, Taking their revenge On social media platforms for something not quite right.

Platforms only too ready to join in the vile Spineless spouting from An embittered soul only too Happy to break a small business, Wielding newfound power by The stroke of their keyboard of venom Pouring their ridicule on those Deemed beneath them.

Their children to take on the Early role of bullying, Pushing and screaming to get their own way As they take control of the disadvantaged child’s Simple toys, following graciously In their parent’s ill trodden footsteps.

So, to the subservient servant Trying to make their living. For most, low season is a time Of careful planning to stretch out Saved money from long hard Working hours with any joy Now taken out for fear of upsetting The spoilt ungrateful tourist.

Thank you Dr Mehmet Yildiz and the Illumination team for giving my words a platform here at Illumination… Thank you all for reading and your valuable time. J.