Lucy Alexander #29 Amanita muscaria – the Fly Agaric

Preening gills

whiter than starlight

blithe in the shade

so fruiting body

so labial

and yet

the musk scent

of upturned moss and

the slow slow thrust

of such a creature

pointing heavenward

as if made of old sunlight

as are we all.

He doesn’t breathe heavily

of weight and matter earthy

he’d show you several dimensions

if you put him in your belly

to curse his sharpened spear

the rant in the night as he

slowly poisoned  your

ability to dream

or know the constellations

that hover so

on his toady red skin.

The sun will have him back

dry him crispy

so soon the grandeur

sinks back to soil

and another year

will know the offspring

rising so from loamy gravesites

hovering up surface-ward

to inherit the earth.