In Japan, Mushrooms have two names,

Kinoko: child of the tree

Taake: ear of the grass.

(as in shii-take, shii-oak, take-mushroom, mushroom that grows on oak)

Though my ancient relatives had less scientific understanding

How shrewd and observant they were.

Saprophytic fungi reside in wood

Mycorrhizal fungi dwell in the soil.

In these two names they tell the story of wood, earth, air, minerals, death and life. 

Most likely, early forms of trees and fungi

Were the first to emerge from the original womb, the ocean, onto the inhospitable

Rocky mass and carbon filled air.

Together they slowly worked the planet, the fungi breaking down rock

Creating soil for trees to root

while trees inhaled the carbon-filled atmosphere,

Gave the fungi sugars and filled the air with oxygen.

If trees are monuments of permanence and life,

fungi are the foundation of impermanence and decay

Life is no less fecund than death.

Death is no less vital than life.

How shrewd and observant my ancestors were.

Instead of falling prey to binary thinking

They saw the whole paradox as something sumptuous to dine.

~en sawyer (excerpt published on Geez Magazine, Resurrection Issue, March 2021)