The birthday boy sings “Heart of Gold”
at his Fortieth
and everyone feels the punch
when he enunciates the chorus’ end:
“…and I’m gettin’ old.”

Neil Young recorded that song
when he was twenty five,
wrote it when he was a mere twenty four.
He weren’t old at all at the time.

Dylan thought,
when “Heart of Gold” came out,
it was one of the best Dylan ripoffs
he had ever heard.

Young thought the song made him
everything he was,
so he spent years
deconstructing that very thing.

It’s a powerful spell,
the “Heart of Gold,”
an incantation that encircles,
that ensorcels,
that inspires,
that made it into the night’s birthday set
helping herald a young man
into his middle ages.