The teacher tells us you are fruiting bodies
born of fungal compulsion. You are very specific,
choosing fir cones, or pine, while others
borrow bodies that can climb up high, oh
the intoxication, thrusting spongy stems
from emptied eyes, sticky in a salt dune breeze …
Poem, in its entirety, is available in the printed version of the current issue.
Bio:
Diane Massam writes about the entanglement of nature and mind, with recent publications in Arc Poetry Magazine, the New Quarterly, and Fresh Voices. The winner of the Federation of BC Writers poetry competition (2021), she is also a professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Toronto, where she has completed a certificate in creative writing. She lives near the ocean in her hometown, Victoria, British Columbia, the traditional territory of the Lekwungen peoples (Instagram: @massampoetry).