Before It Was Torn Down

By Don Kingfisher Campbell

I’m 18 and she’s 21
Our first traveling date

The Long Beach Pier, old Queen’s Pike
November 19, 1977

I’ve never been
on a roller coaster before

We strap in one that circles
t
h
i
s
w
a
y
It’s called The Hammer

Then we lean in
The Bobsled Run

around and
around and around and
around and

I scream She screams
We hold on tight We get off

I stagger

About 11 feet away

my stomach comes out
thru
my
mouth

So much for the date

She escorts me slowly to my car

A big ’63 Buick
with vinyl brown benches

I lie in the back
ghostly

She talks to me
leaning over the front
seat

We marry
shortly thereafter

And divorce
almost as quickly

She becomes a nurse

And I’m still reeling
out poems