Mushrooms
In that stillness
beneath the rough
darkness
autumnal fungi
smell like masks
bone dust
tombstones.
Smooth as rocks in a brook
they dip their heads, hold
their light deep in shadows
like miniature
gathering constellations
or saints
naked
and drenched in mystery.
Cento Sources: TOGE Sankichi, Barbara Jane Reyes, Lord Byron, Alice Notley, Christopher Pressfield, Oliver Baez Bendorf, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Daniela Gioseffi, Mark Underlich, Patricia Hooper, Richard Kenney, J. B. Goodenough, David Bottoms, Ed Roberson, D. H. Lawrence
Red Beets
Hard, heavy, slow, dark
small—whole planets
underground.
Blood red
roots
remaining in the dark, growing in facets
so solid, and with such security.
Are they
a wonderful thing to be seen
the sweet meat of happiness?
Not so.
Beauty eludes them. Usually they soak
the silence
in the cold kingdom
till they bleed
in my mouth.
Cento Sources: James K. Baxter, Kaveh Akvar, Cedar Sigo, Xiaoly Li, William Meredith, Kiki Petrosino, Lawson Fusao Inada, Lewis Carroll, Tomas Q. Morin, James P. Young. Evie Shockley, Timothy Liu, Mona Van Duyn, Elfriede Jelinek, Emily Perez
Patrice Boyer Claeys authored Lovely Daughter of the Shattering, The Machinery of Grace and Honey from the Sun (with Gail Goepfert). This Hard Business of Living (with Goepfert) is due from Seven Kitchens Press. Forthcoming work in Adirondack Review and Dodging the Rain. She lives and cooks in Chicago.
