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Experience the thrills of the Weekly Poems Contest.
January 15th, 2026
Angela Poetry Contest #1 – First Place
by Lynn White
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.
About the Poet
Lynn White resides in Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, Wales.
Read the poet's biography and Wax Poetry and Art publications
on Lynn White's Artist Page.
This poem is included in Poetry World #14, published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Keywords: travel poem, adventure
Previously published in Angela Poetry Magazine:
Moth Myth
by Luke McGuinniety
Angela Poetry Magazine is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
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