Death Cap Mushrooms of the Big Thicket

Jesse Doiron

April 5, 2026

The mushrooms while away in undergrowth;

wet weather there will tell them when to spore,

mycelia, more plentiful than oak

in this archipelago of thickets.

The mushrooms, clad in soft impressions, seem

mere shadows cast upon the forest floor.  

But they, in thick and musky silence, scheme,

on tiptoe, quietly, from tree to tree.

The mushrooms hide in towns beneath the yards,

tie threads of wisp in knots between the lanes,

and string them out along the piney trails,

poisoning the tamed and untamed places –

where feral hogs know well which ones to eat,

but careless men, content, consume the treat.

Jesse Doiron has worked in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as an educator and consultant. His teaching experience ranges from English for international business at the UC – Berkeley Extension in San Francisco to creative writing at the Mark Stiles Maximum Security Prison for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Read Jesse’s explication here.