Edexcel GCSE Poetry Anthology

40
Postcard from a Travel Snob
I do not wish that anyone were here.
This place is not a holiday resort
with karaoke nights and pints of beer
for drunken tourist types – perish the thought.
5 This is a peaceful place, untouched by man –
not like your seaside-town-consumer-hell.
I’m sleeping in a local farmer’s van –
it’s great. There’s not a guest house or hotel
within a hundred miles. Nobody speaks
10 English (apart from me, and rest assured,
I’m not your sun-and-sangria-two-weekssmall-minded-package-philistine-abroad).
When you’re as multi-cultural as me,
your friends become wine connoisseurs, not drunks.
15 I’m not a British tourist in the sea;
I am an anthropologist in trunks.
Sophie Hannah