The Luggage by Constance Urdang

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The theme of the next week (!) is travel - not that I haven't been on the road recently but this time it'll be for fun.  Oh it has been too, too long!  And this might be one of the best parts of the journey: the anticipation of it all.

The Luggage by Constance Urdang

Travel is a vanishing act
Only to those who are left behind.
What the traveler knows
Is that he accompanies himself,
Unwieldy baggage that can’t be checked,
Stolen, or lost, or mistaken.
So one took, past outposts of empire,
“Calmly as if in the British Museum,”
Not only her Victorian skirts,
Starched shirtwaists, and umbrella, but her faith
In the civilizing mission of women,
Her backaches and insomnia, her innocent valor;
Another, friend of witch-doctors,
Living on native chop,
Trading tobacco and hooks for fish and fetishes,
Heralded her astonishing arrival
Under shivering stars
By calling, “It’s only me!” A third,
Intent on savage customs, and to demonstrate
That a woman could travel as easily as a man,
Carried a handkerchief damp with wifely tears
And only once permitted a tribal chieftain
To stroke her long, golden hair.


Comments

  1. Ahh, how exciting! Have a great time! :)

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  2. oh, love, love, love this. have fun on your journeys xoxo

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  3. Hooray for fun travel, finally!!!

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  4. May this week pass smoothly and quickly!

    "travel as easily as a man"...I hope that's a really old bit of writing.

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  5. Bon voyage, Rooth:) Travelling next month, too!

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  6. So exciting! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures . . .

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  7. Brilliant! What duffel did you choose? And I'll share a stanza from my favorite travel song, "A Foreign Affair," by Manhattan Transfer:

    Planes and trains and boats and buses
    Characteristically evoke a common attitude of blue
    Unless you have a suitcase and a ticket and a passport
    And the cargo that they're carrying is you

    Bon Voyage, sweetie!

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  8. Why why why is the pre-travel anticipation always as strong a feeling as the actual travel itself? Enjoy your wandering! Where are you headed?? xo

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  9. Love it! And I agree, the anticipation is one of the best parts! I love making plans!

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  10. i am pretty pretty pretty excited about your upcoming travels too. xoxo

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