THE HOME

Mushrooms

By Stelios Mormoris

I thumbed the velour gills
of its underside flecked to a lighter gray,
leaving a smudge finer than dust,
ghastly as ashes

settling in my fingerprint
and fluorescent arcs of my cuticles.
The mushroom affixed
its skin to mine.

Anonymous and shadowless
under a canopy of trees
whittling wind
into a fabric of whispers,

I rode the urge to touch
this stranger
cloaked in pewter iridescence
waiting like a shrine.

Against my lid I pressed the crown,
bruising as I slid
it down the crest of my nose
to inhale its damp, cumulative odor.

Tributaries of knotted roots
they bred on
led me within earshot
of blackish rushing rivulets

where the sun slipped
furtive knives, and pebbles quarreled
under rhymes of water.
Emblems of quiet

more than silence,
the mushrooms kept witness.
And in my wake glowed
a silent choir.

Native of Boston and Martha's Vineyard, Stelios Mormoris is CEO of SCENT BEAUTY, Inc. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and M.B.A. from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He has been published in AGNI, Crab Creek Review, Narrative, Plainsongs, Spillway, Sugar House Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and other journals. Stelios' debut book of poetry The Oculus was published by Tupelo Press in 2022. His second volume, Perishable, is forthcoming from Tupelo in 2024.