I wanted to become a mushroom.

 

I put an ad on Craigslist.

 

“Will you help me build a mushroom hat in exchange for a palm-reading?”

 

I made it explicit that there was no budget for this and all I had to offer was this divinatory reading, which I taught myself when I was fourteen because my mother was a witch with a pendulum and I had a heightened sensitivity for the effect of stories on hands and faces.

 

I didn’t think much of it and would’ve felt lucky to hear back from even just one.

 

22 people replied.

 

 

 

 

 

 

some mushrooms

                               twinkle

                                             in the dark to

                                                        lure insects

                                                                  attracted to light

                                will crawl                         such as firefly or flylarvae

   who                                                between

                                                 round         round         round

              over                      under                            the twinkling mushroom

                                                           &                 &

                                                  in search

                                              of                               a

                                              luminous lover

                                    until they             realise that

                                                     oh…

                                               it’s just a mushroom

                                at this point             their little feet

                                               are covered in

                                microscopic              spores

                                                      oh…

which the fly will                                                           spread in service of the

                                               dancing

                                 fungus                       oh…

                                                fucking

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the time I became lovers with my friend but it was very CASUAL meaning that she was very casual about it and I was very much in love with her.

 

I tried to console myself by by obsessing over the plant person from my local plant shop. I found out sun sign, pronouns and hobbies through eavesdropping on other customers.

 

The Plant Person, Scorpio, they/them, dancer, always wore tank tops that revealed a tattoo of the Little Prince. Sometimes the little Prince cried droplets of sweat and I came to discern The Plant Person’s scent as it mingled with the lucky bambo and the tiny palm tress. All I wanted that summer was to get a better glimpse at the inside of the Plant Person’s palm and let the lines condensed into their skin reveal to us that these hands were, yes, wrinkly from the water, fragrant from the dirt but that these hands were also made to want me on a deep and intimate level.

 

Outside, the streets were creamy with micro milky ways as birds were still shitting on pavements and people were still talking about the weather like they had nothing to do with it.