Airglow

Damn but you want to find that forest
That you’ll never find your way out of,

That forest all the colors of night,
Of milky skyglow over cities,

Of the faint blue around the full moon,
Of the grey wool of gathering storms,

Of gasses’ self-illumination
As airglow, the crown of the forest.

You know it’s the very atmosphere
Of day, the atmosphere that belongs

To the planet and not to the night,
And yet it fools you, seeming open,

As if someone took away the screen
And left the window gaping in space—

It fools you until you see the lights
That tell you’re still in the forest,

The atmosphere of Earth, and you sigh
And smile. You’ll never find your way out.