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Path: University (1985-1990) » portraits of red and grey » portraits of red and grey - 1

one

 

marshie greets us a salesman today carrying brochures of russia red with cathedrals mosques museum statues and snow-tipped mountain tops

( marshie - our english teacher cool among the strung out hormone-driven schoolboys seventeen years old and reckless )

 

he needs fifteen of us

an eighteen day adventure

 

( excited whispers fly

  disheveled ties and ripped-seam blazers

  our eyes light up

  we ignore mom and dad's expected gasps

  two thousand canadian dollars :

  airfare hotel food expenses

  into communist coffers )

 

we have to go

young impatient imaginations explode

dreams of faraway places

of sean connery and michael caine

                                                 ( capitalist kings in a lesser land )

 

in a few days

excited whispers and red brochures

whither

 

but i hang on

my mind wanders each night

through glossy tourist snapshots

my dreamy russia enchanted

my dreams innocent

ignorant

 

     -----

 

i study russia for homework

                                      waiting anxiously for departure

library book history

                           tour book advice

what to wear

                 where to buy

rubles kopeks

                    and rules

don't drink the water

                             or take pictures of bridges

                                                        trucks

                                                        soldiers

                                                        tanks

 

i pack my suitcase full

with black market currency

                                     cigarettes

                                     buttons

                                     gum

                                     jeans

                                     running shoes

                                     cassettes

 

     -----

 

pearson airport, toronto

 

fifteen camera-clad schoolboys

oxfords and school blazers replaced by topsiders and gucci sweaters

we are surrounded by parents

excited nervous hugs and kisses

be careful see you

soon

 

     -----

 

i can't remember most of their names

or faces

 

only my roommate phil

                                 passed out in a vodka swirl

and raoul

              eating black-market caviar

              breakfast lunch and midnight snack

and frank

              armed with two-thousand dollar photo gear

              ( he never learned how to focus )

and marshie

                  buying us drinks drinking and ignoring :

                                                                           the perfect chaperone

 

by James C. Morehead