Words for Xylaria hypoxylon

Photo by Katja Schulz

humble amidst the humus

concealed in sacred shadows

crowding in cool corners of calm

ubiquitous in the unseen

and seemingly without a care

your long, thin bodies

emerge from ligneous earth 

sugar coated match sticks 

snow capped chitinous kin

grand carbonic antlers

of microcosmic stature

reaching as if for salvation

that cock the head of fortuitous onlookers

who may unveil your presence

witnessing the wild, sensuous world 

of the small and ephemeral

the elfin and cordial

through sincere observation

and the tender holding of question

cultivating curiosity

a sense of anomalous joy

with warped blackened form

charred in the fire 

of divine distillation 

or could it simply be advent

flaunting dainty, dynamic disposition

erect with ecstatic aliveness

consuming the world around us

in complacent calm

in seductive silence

dancing sweetly upon death 

celebrating unabashedly

hurling white conidious confetti 

misting the air in fecundity

giving themselves back to the Earth,

as she offers her flesh

as sacrament

to the eager alchemists 

that sustain the cycles

of seas and shared breath