Lichenisation in a Cloister of Gold

It exists within another.

Image credits: Ernst Haeckel

a mycobiont cannot find home

       it       exists     within         another          

body

              i   exist as a           being

singular  

       for        too     long

      i function well 

enough

      respiring in         and     out 

         feeling          the         sand lick   my

lungs

        i let   anyone drink from         the     nectar of my

neck

      I and   they  tumble 

     weed

our way          through         a                     clumsy      

pollination

       i            could         survive     alone

     have      my    sweat leak         through 

      the       mycelium under            my feet

      have      my   growth   measured     finitely

        have     my    breath liquified

       be         the most           beautiful                  

colours 

       and   petrify                          the       tongue

       i     exist              as             a    

before

  a precursor       to           now

     pre-contact       inchoate 

 i    cannot       know        

who 

       how it     was

   for     you

    was      it     like  the     slamming action  of warp and      

weft

      or    a kinder       steeping

        i    hope    they      did     not   try     to      

burnish 

the    gold       ring    of your     mouth

  which         shined     when   you         came   to          

me

across the     stretch of a fighting         ring

                 it       begins           with             contact

         collision

      my hands   can finally     be put       to  

good use

       it               looks     like   it hurts       at           first

my       haustoria reaching         in

  often         mistaken     for      pathogenic

           leading       you         into me

          similarity      is     needed for         plurality

we       both  have     a     praiseworthy              

strength

that        we   have         been               punished         pushed      

underneath

        let me       in

        properly

        please

                please

 is it   not   nice         to     be    held

  they      thought         we   were  

hierarchical

me           above     you 

you commanding     me

   but a     baptist

understood

that    we       are   in service to         each

other

we       throw       parts          of     ourself                on    top     

        of       each other

    until we       form     a         

thallus

finally    indistinguishable from   one another

   we become              the          braid   in an          old mans     

beard

    the perfume       of      persistent     skin

                   the       health         of   a  

lung

  we       can           exist     for       millennia

right     under         their           noses

      cover   six         percent of     their  

bodies

       those                       who      lack a           heightened         awareness

  of           micromatter

ignorant   to      the         indignity   of   their

vastness

but   we 

      who can         be

    fruticose                    foliose    filamentous         leprose  squamulose

crustose

   defying     facile        categorization

       will   hang             above

       like   cardboard         stars

    orchestrating              a child’s         beckoning     mobile

while sitting   on     stones      and half-dead       trees

       death             within     as     life

    you                   me     I     us  

we 

                   being         plural