Little Worlds
(Ode to a Tiny Fungi on the Rainforest Floor)

What little worlds are lost to us
there on the jungle floor
as, looking up,
we tread them underfoot.

Perhaps whole civilizations
extinguished on those orange orbs—
A solar system of planets with their denizens
too microscopic for us to see.

Heedless Gods we are, our mighty glances
overlooking much of what’s beneath us.

But for the camera lens,
how much more we would miss
as we go about our busy greater world.

Memories of the Lacandón jungle, 2008. Other small memories of that adventure are below (fungal and non-fungal.) Please click on photos to enlarge.