Some poems come quickly & unexpected. Almost effortlessly. This one came about because I saw a photo of a lichen called Rhizocarpon geographicum (map lichen) in one of my reference books. And within 15 minutes, this poem had escaped.

The Factoid is a reworking/amplification of a line I remember reading that still blows my mind.

[Disclaimer: Another block of catch up poems, all written on the correct day (Monday) but unable to get online in time.]

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fungi-algae-fusion-ophile 

we called them then : & still do now : moss rocks : a wiser me : probably never can again : as i know them to be : lichen rocks : but c’est la vie : i used to love : staring at them as a kid : up the back of our small farm : on the stone wall fence : or the big lumps of granite : iceberg-like : buried 4/5ths underground : just a crest : poking out : like a dolphin’s dorsal : anywhere really : time had a chance to slow down : settle : to my eye : they looked like : crazy continents : maps of far-off fantasy worlds : yes i am one of those : card-carrying cartophiles : one of those mad map enthusiasts : always referring back to the maps : of made up worlds : in the beginning of big epic fantasy wonderlands : wondering which exotically named place : the protagonists would be heading : next : & the same with these glorious : lichen-covered : living maps : allowing me to be : in multiple universes : at once 

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Day 27 Factoids — The Boundary Riders

the go-betweens

it is likely that
some portion 
of the minerals 
in your body 

has passed 

through lichen 
at some point
in the history
of the world