Gil’s moment in the sun – Harry Reid

after Jesi Gaston

that his decline of a similar position in the code from “over there”,
noting also that the level of prestige is incomparable to anything
“over here”, remains more or less a point of trivia, would, and has
been, used by some to justify the bleeding heart of the executive,
or rather that corporate governance and structure is a natural ex-
tension of the game itself, an act of love and stewardship, instead
of simply a reflection of Gil’s prepensacity, as he would say himself,
to think of life as something lived in quarters, not halves. Gil, for
what it’s worth, also recognizes that the path of the executive is one
of redemption, and that his modest success in the league, having
ultimately amounted to little more than a point of trivia itself, due to
our tendency to dismiss anything “state” or “country” into the realm
of the die-hard or hyper-local, sets him up as a sort of tragic figure,
an almost-ran who returns to leave his mark on the game. though
that it’s Gil who must steer the code through it’s darkest hour, that
he is the one to shepard the league through the end of history, is
lost on the man himself, living, as he does, a life lived in the shadow
of goalposts, always scrambling towards a vision (he hopes is) shared
by players, stakeholders and fans alike. despite this, Gil recognises
that there can be no hero’s moment for an executive, to lose, in his
world, is to lose totally, and though he may stand stoically beside
the statues of past greats to deliver his generational press conference,
stepping, at last, out of the shadows, no such memorial awaits him.

This poem is part of the Amazing Poetry Race. Discover all five poems by exploring the City of Port Phillip.
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