Traveling On Credit, by DANIEL HALPERN

They would think up trips on Sundays--

Traveling to Lahore via Persia,

Sliding through the Khyber Pass,

Dropping into India like Polo.

The trips began off Fire Island

On a beach day with high red winds,

Swimming nude in South Bay

Together. The residents looked away,

Cared for their gardens which suffered

From the whip of the salt wind

And the Patchogians, who

Came with bayberry sandwiches

To hawk their bodies in the sun

And hurry back on the last

Watch Hill ferry. They lived

In Bayberry and thought up trips

With the marina’s population

(A Calcutta of boats)

Looking on from polished wood.

They were, for the most part, in love,

Traveling. Sundays, to Lahore

In three cars with two wolfhounds,

Four afghans and a setter--

A Packard, a Daimler and a Ford.

They were set on Lahore:

Stops in Izmir and Isfahan,

The long crawl through Persia.

On Sundays, in fine weather,

They set out with a pocketful

Of visas and rolled east, content

With itineraries of sand

And postcards back on the weekend.

From “Daniel Halpern: Selected Poems” by Daniel Halpern. (Knopf: $23.) 1994 Reprinted by permission.