TRAVEL POEM

 

 

John Dixon lives and works in West Palm Beach after relocating from New York City. He is currently completing a collection of poems about Palm Beach and south Florida. He has written a novel Guardians of the Secrets and is occasionally published in literary journals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breaker Hammerhead

 

 

We ran down the beach not knowing what to find

Driftwood and another life not ours

Barnacles conch shells seaweed and sharp coral

Swimming with hammerhead pups at night from The Breakers’ light

We sought to tame what was lost

Not realizing we were gone

Beyond the gathering waves

Sargassum masses adrift

Sandollars crunched underfoot

Careful not to stomp a stingray’s

Barbed poisonous tail to the ankle

Pompano racing baitfish at dusk

Skimming through the waves

With feisty blacktips giving chase

The hotel lights and shorefront mansions behind seagrape

And mangrove dunes

Dark blue squalls far off in the fading distance

Toward the gulfstream soon to come ashore

Your bright polka-dot bikini bouncing out of the flotsam

Afloat in the distance of my dreams

A life that might have been

 

You meant more to me than life

And now all that’s left are memories

When you woke next to me

And I brought you coffee in bed

We bicycled over the bridge to the beach

Sunscreen glistening on your golden skin

Lovingly rubbing Coppertone

Onto my back as we

Lay in the sand picnicking on pears and wine

When we were young with all the yearning

When we swam in moonlight

Unaware and uncaring of what was to become

When we snorkeled in Bermuda

Then drank crisp white wine at the Southampton Princess

After exhaustive long walks above cliffs and coves and pink beaches

And went to Hamilton for duty free jewelry

 

Later you lay before me I was inside you

Marveling at your diamond Rolex

And you still loved me then

As the tides pursued their course

Washing away all that came before us

Then washing away our footprints too

Leaving no trace in the sand

 

You swam back to the shore as the sun set

On the beach towel waving

As I turned and swam farther beyond the waves past the reef

Backpedaling to remain afloat a while

You were beautiful my sweet

Babuschka of my dreams little girl

When all is lost I haven’t more to give

You will go on without me

 

The sun setting behind The Breakers

Water becoming dark

This now all I’ll ever be

 

When we went into town along Worth Avenue

Past Taboo now gone

And lunched at Le Bilboquet on oysters and red snapper

And I realized you no longer loved me

But the food was good

And so I bought you a cloverleaf necklace

At Van Cleefs you so wanted

To wear for someone else when I’m gone

Beneath the waves

Short of breath the briny tinge

 

Imagine all that came before us

The movie stars and socialites in moonlight

Loves lost before we were ever born

Where did they go

 

I’d take you with me but I’m too far out

Tide tugging me away

Besides you don’t want to go

Still a life to live

I’ve left you what I have

Maybe not much but you’ll never have to work

Not that you ever really did

You hurt me most when I was close to you

But that was long ago

 

A wave breaks over me lapping my face

Returning me to where I want to go

Places in the depths far away

Briny water gurgling in the mouth

Waves that would drown me

Wash me offshore to the gulfstream

I’ll stay out here a while

My empty towel left on the beach

Watching you walk away

The swim too relaxing to return

When I had shown you everything

Including my despair

 

Crab nachos at the Grill are good

Go ahead and order but not for me

I might be out here a while

Swim toward the twilight horizon or come ashore

Wet for a dry martini at the hotel bar

 

When Amphitrite goddess of the ocean

Daughter of Nereus

Swam with dolphins a sea nymph

Poseidon placed her among

The constellation of Delphinus

Far above the waves paradigm of Neptune

With chariots of mermaids and undersea calliopes

Out of reach of the moon

And out of reach of me when I swam