THE FREETHINKER

London, England

9 December 1923

(page 773)

 

Mushrooms.

 

 

At dawn the flats are grey with mist

Before the fields are sunrise-kissed,

And hopping field-fares stray and stir

About the mushroom-gatherer.

 

Whiskered, swart-grey to match the fruit

That best in dank green meads can shoot,

When dawn is young and birds awake

He hurries through the dripping brake.

 

Light fungi from the sopping fells

The mushroom-merchant dourly sells,

And when at length they come to you

The sun is high, the sky is blue.

 

Through running streams, by sodden trees,

At dawn of dewy harmonies,

The flapping hat and pipe grown rank

Pass where the mould is lush and dank.

 

O children of the morning mist

Before the world is sunrise-kissed,

You’re borne, when day is well astir,

By the old fungus-gatherer.

 

And when the sun is hot and high

The mushroom-merchant will come by;

He saw the first gold sun-streak stir,

The old grey wrinkled gatherer.

 

Victor B. Neuburg