A Full Bus

It was the summer of 1989 

the last days of the Soviet Union

and our first visit to Sochi.

We were staying on the outskirts

and had taken the bus into town to explore.

We waited in a long line for the bus to return

so when it came we thought there may not be room,

but there was, a squeeze amongst those strangers

and a triumph that we made it aboard against all odds!

At the next bus stop there was another long line of people

and we thought the bus would go past leaving them standing,

but it stopped and everyone got on hardly able to breathe now

though the driver’s girlfriend helped out

by setting on his knee

and on we went to the next stop

where once again the bus stopped

and everyone somehow squeezed aboard.

The concept of a full bus simply didn’t exist.

And then we were out of town

and at the next stop

there was noisy good natured concern 

in the middle of the crush.

Someone wanted to get off.

So all the passengers disembarked

(apart from the driver’s girlfriend)

and sorted themselves affably into some sort of order

before squeezing back and holding their breath.

From then on the journey was unremarkable,

the passengers had done this before

and were in disembarking order.

The bus remained overfull to the end by non-Sochi standards

but eventually we were all able to breathe freely again

and some strangers had become friends.

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