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Stamp Collecting

Stamp Collecting STAMP COLLECTING / Cathy Song The poorest countries have the prettiest stamps as if impracticaUty were a major export Take Tonga, where the tourists, expecting a dramatic waterfall replete with birdcalls, are taken to see the island's peculiar mystery: hanging bats with collapsible wings like black umbrellas swing upside down from fruit trees. shipped with the bananas, t-shirts and coconuts. The Tongan stamp is a fruit. The banana stamp is scalloped like a butter-varnished seashell. The pineapple resembles a volcano, a spout of green and the papaya, a tarnished goat skull. They look impressive, these stamps of countries without a thing to sell except for what is scraped, uprooted and hulled from their mule-scratched hills. on top, They believe in postcards, in portraits of progress: the new dam; a team of young native doctors wearing stethoscopes like exotic ornaments; the recently constructed "Facultad de Medicina," a buUding as lack-lustre as an American motel. The stamps of others are predictable. Lucky is the country that possesses indigenous beauty. Say a tiger or queen. The Japanese can display to the world their blossoms: a spray of pink on green. Like pollen, they drift, airborne. But pity the country that is http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Missouri Review University of Missouri

Stamp Collecting

Song, Cathy
The Missouri Review , Volume 11 (2) – Oct 5, 1988
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Publisher
University of Missouri
Copyright
Copyright © The Curators of the University of Missouri.
ISSN
1548-9930
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Abstract

STAMP COLLECTING / Cathy Song The poorest countries have the prettiest stamps as if impracticaUty were a major export Take Tonga, where the tourists, expecting a dramatic waterfall replete with birdcalls, are taken to see the island's peculiar mystery: hanging bats with collapsible wings like black umbrellas swing upside down from fruit trees. shipped with the bananas, t-shirts and coconuts. The Tongan stamp is a fruit. The banana stamp is scalloped like a butter-varnished seashell. The pineapple resembles a volcano, a spout of green and the papaya, a tarnished goat skull. They look impressive, these stamps of countries without a thing to sell except for what is scraped, uprooted and hulled from their mule-scratched hills. on top, They believe in postcards, in portraits of progress: the new dam; a team of young native doctors wearing stethoscopes like exotic ornaments; the recently constructed "Facultad de Medicina," a buUding as lack-lustre as an American motel. The stamps of others are predictable. Lucky is the country that possesses indigenous beauty. Say a tiger or queen. The Japanese can display to the world their blossoms: a spray of pink on green. Like pollen, they drift, airborne. But pity the country that is

Journal

The Missouri Review – University of Missouri

Published: Oct 5, 1988

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