We strapped on steel quads,

raced onto the concrete rink,

and hand-in-hand

cruised the summer night away

to the sounds of Frankie Avalon

and the Everly Brothers.

A mist off the sea touched our skin –

bare arms and legs –

and we laughed,

while the surf rushed

along rock jetties.

Franks and fries our diet,

we lived for the moment,

and on the beach

beyond the flood-lit boardwalk,

couples strolled into darkness

toward the breaking sea.

Richard Bronson is an award‑winning poet and author of five collections, including Imperfect Knowledge. He served as Poet Laureate of Suffolk County (2021–2023) and is a board member of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association and the Long Island Poetry Collective. His work has been recognized with the American College of Physicians’ Poem of the Year Award and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award. In addition to his literary career, Bronson is a graduate of MIT and NYU School of Medicine and a faculty member at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, where he bridges medicine and the humanities.