Bill Grace - :) Russia

Candy given to comfort at take off
Spontaneous applause in landing
Our guides grand father murdered by Stalin's men
The vastness of her Western steppe experienced
If only through jet window review,
The strangeness where every car could be a cab
And duress no excuse for lack of faithfulness
To things too deep for talk.
The old ways and the new ways
Cross and merge and intertwine
Russia emerges slowly to her new age.

Bill Grace

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/russia-3/