Mushrooms - Paul Kelly

Overnight, very

Whitely, discreetly

Very quietly

Our toes, our noses

Take hold on the loam

Acquire the air

Nobody sees us

Stops us, betrays us

The small grains make room

Soft fists insist on

Heaving the needles

The leafy bedding

Even the paving

Our hammers, our rams

Earless and eyeless

Perfectly voiceless

Widen the crannies

Shoulder through holes

We diet on water

On crumbs of shadow

Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing

So many of us

So many of us

We are shelves, we are

Tables, we are meek

We are edible

Nudgers and shovers

In spite of ourselves

Our kind multiplies

We shall by morning

Inherit the earth

Our foot’s in the door

Our foot’s in the door

So many of us

So many of us

So many of us