For the Mycelial Networks
by Melissa McClure

You have gills,
but live on land,
a stalk, but you aren't a flower
or even a plant.
You live off the dead and the living,
you are so like and unlike us;
dandy caps and different types of sex,
every color and land hosts your presence.
Treeclimber, rot hugger,
we eat you and our eyes grow wide.
We wonder just what
you say of yourselves
in the fifth kingdom,
or of us, hawk-eyed,
searching for your fruits
hidden in the forest.

Melissa McClure is a 2006 Fairhaven College Senior. My concentration focused on exploring individual and communal identity through visual art and culture. She is hoping to pursue a master's degree in poetry and/or creative writing. This summer she plans on canoeing and organizing four years of undergraduate paperwork into neat, alphabetized file folders. Lots of 'em.