Friday, September 30, 2022

Quiet Times: Mushrooms dot the forest

 


Can you find a rhyme or reason for mushrooms?

Can you even define them

the fleshy spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus

that’s Wikipedia for you.

 

Do mushrooms appear after it rains

in the autumn

when there is a dead tree

after fairies have danced?

A colony of fairies must live in my yard.

 

Fungus we are told is an underground tree root communicator

some people can tell edible from poisonous

toadstool denotes the latter

I would never try!

 

Lately

mushrooms light up the forest 

white cream yellow orange red

one day a little ball

the next a full umbrella

or other fantastic shape

maybe a clumped colony

or something that looks like ocean coral

on the forest floor on a dead tree 

higher up where you don't think to look

some tiny unremarkable

others dramatic showy

look at the size of that thing!


They vanish quickly.

 

Fungi appear to be (mostly) friends of the forest

our friends too

in ways we do not yet fully comprehend.

Fairy ring in my yard




Poetry and images by Cheryl Lawrence