a night walk through a forest                      
                                                     of conifers aglow with mushrooms
(bitter oyster, little ping-pong
                                                     bats, bleeding fairy helmet, honey
fungus) bewitching insects to                                                 
                                                     strew their spores & fireflies (we called lightning
bugs) flashing for mates, mirror-               
                                                           ing the heavenly incandescence of the moon
& stars. How sated the air feels,   
                                                         dense & intense, a smoky dark green & I too,
radiate with the flush & fever of                                                    
                                                           pleasure & reverence; recall past glows: 1971,
falling in love for the first time,                                                     
                                                         18 & in college, car-singing tunes I swooned
over & still adore today at 71—                                               
                                                        Imagine, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, After the Gold Rush,
I Feel the Earth Move, Me & Bob-
                                                         by McGee, Woodstock, Wild World, Maggie May,                 Stairway to Heaven.