A gap in privet led from a mowed Field

to the floor of a leaf pavilion

so thick that every shade was green:

the air was stained olive, the shafts oflight

chartreuse. I stood in a dripping heat

where I could not belong, thought it fathered all with root.

I had trespassed on the most ancient of temples, where green

reaches up to the answering spirit oflight.

I dreamed of sharing with tree and vine

the mysteries of communion,

to grow from within where the sun's finger touches the leaf.

But sweat stinging my eyes and skin,

horsefly, mosquito, and gnat

harried me back through the gap into open Field.

I squinted as wind dried my sweat,

feeling restored in a way I could not name

but to say the light had watered

something within me deeply green.