TRAVEL POEM

John Dixon has an MFA from Columbia University and works as a junk bond trader on Wall Street. He has written a novel Guardians of the Secrets and is occasionally published in literary journals.  The poem “Hampton Gillin” was written as a eulogy to his friend. 

Hampton Gillin 

James drove the Roller to the beach

We took a drive down an old street

To see if we could remember

To see what we could forget

We drank too much at Nick & Toni’s

And passed by the Laundry

Ate steak at the Palm

We chased girls late in to the night

And gave them what they

Lacked to understand

We asked them to remember

We asked to see her face

And nothing changed

Lily Pond Lane late

Diving naked to the surf

To see if we remembered

To see if we could forget

Moonlit Hamptons

A love lost

Or perhaps never had

Wedding vows forgotten

The disco parking lot

People we didn’t know

Sand dunes and wet towels

Cheryl and her father’s mansion

The Maidstone Arms with

Tennis in the morning

And champagne mimosas

Waking to the sun

Finding a way back

To Death Trap Cottage

Without James or his Roller