Tonight’s the Night We Begin!

by Bill Gillard

CBGB photo and dragon

From tar roof tops people lean and watch
in the soft summer afternoon heat
below them I crusade in full-color 3-D
through the holy land of NYC

St. Mark’s Place across town
I am a warrior bound
to take back CBGB’s from the unbelievers
I am a warrior bound

(and there’s Mojo’s
the scene five years later of our
last fight ever, when
for your birthday
I bought you
for your birthday
I bought you
What the hell
was I thinking?
I bought you
a cheap Chinatown
red dragon
night light
and
it only
got worse
from there)

The sidewalk grate cuts loose a roar
a fiery blast from the
Bleecker Street 6
burns off my sweat.

The future comes on like that
a dragon’s white eyes and acid roar
down those dark tunnels below the city streets
beyond human sight.

Tonight’s the night, Tony promised, when you and I will begin.
Teenage Fanclub at CB’s and a crazy girl he thinks I might like.

So beware, you dragons of light
I’m a happy boy and I’m coming in.
You dragons of light—beware!
Tonight’s the night we begin!

Wild Transitions Contents

Post Published: 13 April 2010
Author: Bill Gillard
Found in section: Poetry

Bill Gillard really doesn't like it when people park outside of the lines in a crowded lot. He doesn't like love songs or the smell of cooking meat. He dislikes the noise of his own voice but savors the silence before a sneeze. If you catch him in an expansive moment, he does grudgingly admit to liking peanut butter and mustard sandwiches, farmers' markets, hockey on a clean sheet of ice, yoga at 6 a.m., and Wisconsin winters without end, amen. In his spare time, he teaches writing and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley.

Tags: Poetry, wild transitions