thus from dormancy

            deep in the strata

of cancer years

            a red glandular stem

thin as a baby’s aorta

            burgeons under pines

in the acidic debris

            thick as generations  

where from a future

            so minuscule at first

it was deemed dust

            and didn’t register

in the mixed dirt

            the seed sought out

a mutuality of feeling

            between fungus and root

and enzyme-roused

            began to parasitize

the pines’ life-force

            a lank figure playing

now you see me now

            you don’t in the motley

angular shade it will

            not eat light no it will

not be capable yet

            will bear white-drop

urns (furies bred

            at the crossroads

of two kingdoms—

            mycological oncology

chthonic botany) you see    

            some cannot make their

own sustenance must

            plunder it from others

—Radha Marcum

Poet’s Website

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