Day 08 – field + 3-in-1

Seems like there’s a few mushroom memory poems in me trying to make their way out. So we’d best let them. It is an interesting corollary of creative activity that once you start down a certain pathway of thinking/exploration, more & more bubbles to the surface, including things you may not have thought about in decades or even remember you remembered.

WARNING: The Factoid is a pretty shocking and revelatory reveal that will quite possibly BLOW your mind.

*****

field mushrooms
Agaricus multitudinous 

one of my favourite memories 
as a child was wandering 
the wet grassed dew paddocks
                  in my wellies 

& finding huge white beauties 
with chocolate brown gills 
smelling of earth & muddy fertility 
                  some the size of plates

talking with my parents
several days ago we agreed
don’t see as many as we used to 
                  anecdotally at least 

back then the adventure 
was the finding not the eating 
some things stay the same
                  but others change drastically 

*****

Day 08 Factoid – Not all mushrooms taste the same

the unusual instance of 3 mushrooms in 1
Agaricus bisporus

1. Button
entirely white
baby blobs of bland
reason for near universal popularity
             unknown

2. Cremini 
brown capped 
no visible gills
firmer texture  
             difficult to source in Oz

3. Portobello
large rugged roofed
flat brown caps 
& visible gills
             at last looking like a proper mushy

4. Revelation
all these mushrooms are the same
the minor difference is age
the major difference is taste
             (you’re welcome)

Day 20 — winter sports + *bling*

Another poem inspired by my housemate’s weekend activities, writing sitting, baking, as my iPhone screen overheated. I love today’s Factoid.

*****

Round 2: winter sports

admittedly it’s been over 30 years
since i last donned the sprigs 
& dashed out into the mud
as bewildered teenage boy
in the middle of his gap year 
on his way to university 
still terribly uncertain 
of his own personality, his destiny 

however 

one thing for certain
neverever sunburned
watching or playing 
winter sports before 
like i did today 
sitting on the sidelines
tentatively keeping score
through the heat haze

*****

Day 20 – TIL I’ve gone back to a fact I found a couple of days that I just couldn’t let go.

*bling*

one page told me
pirates believed
gold earrings 
improved 
their eyesight

& i didn’t seek 
corroboration
because i so want
this to be true
i’d be crushed if it wasn’t