Every time I look up and see the moon,
even when I don’t, girdled gold, orange,
white sheen glow gifted us all, vigilant
in extremis, when caught between crossfires
of Chance and Necessity, chips not just down,
brokered, bankrupt, bereft, love gone haywire,
dark nights of teen spirit, grief’s gravity
pulled down beneath our feet, felt her
in me across the river hung floodlight high
ATCO SPEEDWAY the hoods, Buds in hand,
riffraff, T-Bird and Ripple 750s, awaiting
Swamp Rat ready to blow-off all hoi polloi
dragsters under unreal light that made iffy
summer weekends worth it, Big Daddy Garlits’
pimped-out ride gleaming, classy and nasty,
lake pipes roaring, acrid smell and taste as revved-up
hot rubber peels out over asphalt shooting
fiery cinder sparks aloft, sharp, fast, loud,
self-assured like pimple-free heartthrob teen love
drive-in screen personas, Tab and Troy
and Tammy, Cricket and Gidget, noted in 16,
Seventeen, or mused about in soporific verse,
back across Tacony-Palmyra, faint tollway
stanchion light, behind shutters, doors
where light rarely shone, neither Buds, bros,
engine and crowd hubbub, no Big Daddy Don’s
land speed record this night, just my own warp-speed,
fast-passing years gathered alone in the dark hoping
to make something of and for myself, something
so bright out of thin air and fear, dim feeling and dream,
as true and beautiful to bear as memory, moonlight,
young summer night.
About the Author
GTimothy Gordon divides lives between New Mexico/Texas borderland Chihuahuan Desert Southwest Organ Mountains and Asia.
Dream Wind was published 2020 (Spirit-of-the-Ram), Ground of this Blue Earth (Mellen), while Everything Speaking Chinese was awarded RiverStone Book Prize.
Work appears in Agni, Cincinnati Review, Mississippi Review, New York Quarterly, Rhino, Texas Observer, among others, several nominated for Pushcarts and Best of the Net. Recent books include Empty (2024), Blue Business (2025), and Knowing, forthcoming 2026. (58)
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