SPIRIT OF THE FEARLESS CREW
for Bob Denver



Every time
I start in
on the good island drinks
Mai tai,
zombie
or a good ol’ hurricane
punch
I want to watch Gilligan’s Island ...

It’s a landscape
I want to escape to
frequently
an island that never goes away
inside my mind
like friends
always waiting to lend me
a laugh track

Damn,
I’ve written
so many of these tributes
lately
because
it’s that time

They’re all going
leaving
my friends
familia
imaginary or otherwise

Gilligan had
more to do with bringing me up
raising me
baby-sitting me
than any teacher
I ever spent time with

So for better or worse
he is/was family

And
when I think of those
kooky cool earlier
crazy days
of the media beatnik
it’s Maynard G. Krebs
at the top of the list

Forget that phony hippy
Allen Ginsberg
(child molesting creep)
just give me
Maynard’s bongos
a true love for Dizzy Gillespie
and an honest aversion to work

Me,
I can’t work today
wondering if Fats Domino
is really okay
inside the storm of Katrina
and feeling the weather
constantly
getting rougher for us all

Lost
we are lost
goddamnit, we lost another one
but I wish you well, Bob
farewell far out space nut,
bon voyage,
adios,
and aloha.


BRADLEY MASON HAMLIN

(September 9, 2005)



"Spirit of the Fearless Crew" by Bradley Mason Hamlin originally published by RetroCRUSH (09.10.05). Revised for Mystery Island Publications (03.28.06). All rights reserved. Copyright © 2006 Mystery Island. No reproduction allowed without permission.



CONTACT

MORE CELEBRITY TRIBUTES

MYSTERY ISLAND HOME