Mushrooms Poem by gershon hepner

They only fruit when they are sure
that they are bound to die,
and only threat of death will lure
most mushrooms to your pie.
They love to grow where there’s manure,
for fungi all rely
on what's excrescent and impure
to help them multiply.

Bastidiomycetes endure
when they can't see the sky,
and flourishing beside a sewer
on pastures dank they lie.
But though their style of life is poor
and some may make you die,
men love them like a wicked whore
whom men with bad taste buy.

Molly O'Neill (NYT, November 4,1998) , writes about mushrooms in an article entitled 'After the Portobello, It's Mushroom Mania.' She quote Jack Reitnauer of Vlasic Farms in Blandon, Pa., who says that mushrooms will only fruit if they are sure they are going to die. To confuse a mushroom into giving birth a grower has to create conditions that will scare it to death. Marked shifts of temperature, a sudden soaking or a blaze of light will scare the gills off it.

11/4/98,11/23/09