Invasion

Among the roots of dying and dead trees,
they creep, no fun these parasitic mutants
all feasting on decay. No friends are these;
Armillaria are spored pollutants,
the bogeymen of stumps, and oh, so potent.
With eerie shapes and honey fungus breath,
they’re saprophytes of dieback, rot and death,
as white as ghosts, they haunt both branch and bark,
and trunk and roots with golden mould beset:
a mycelium invasion from the dark.

Kim M. Russell, 30th October 2025

This Thursday I am linking up to the dVerse Poets Pub very early as I am spending time with Ellen and the boys, who will be going home on Sunday after a third birthday Halloween and weekend. We are meeting the bar with Grace and the dizain poetry form, a 10-line French poetic form, traditionally composed of a single stanza. It follows a strict rhyme scheme of ABABBCCDCD and typically uses 10, or sometimes, 8 syllables per line, often in iambic pentameter. The example Grace has given is ‘Names,’ by Brad Osborne.

Our challenge is to write a dizain following the given dizain form on any theme of our choice. I chose the honey fungus that recently invaded our garden.

32 thoughts on “Invasion”

  2. They are huge spored pollutants and look/smell awful too. Loving the rhyming verses Kim specially:

    the bogeymen of stumps, and oh, so potent.With eerie shapes and honey fungus breath

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  13. Never seen those here. But to me those look pretty though not as pretty as your descriptive words to tell us how horrible they are. This is lovely. Hope you find a way to get rid of them pests. Thanks Kim.

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