Fun with Fungus

Foraging for a fungus in a forest
Makes for a nice alliteration
But it’s hard, backbreaking work
Which lazy me would ordinarily shun

Not when I have excited friends
All eager to give it a shot
So off we went, baskets in hands
And sun hats, in case it got hot

The idea was to pick them fresh
And then cook our own food
When you do everything from scratch
It makes things taste so good

We each had a secret recipe
For different kinds of mushrooms
And along tagged an expert just in case
We picked some poison leading us to doom

Soup, salad, with cream, stuffed, sauteed
Button, oyster, trumpet and chantrelle
On pizza, in pies, risotto, tossed in hoisin
Portobello, gypsy, funnel and morel

With garlic or butter or spinach, or in an omelette
Caesar’s, parasol, enoki and matsutake
Varieties from all the countries and continents
Red pine, hedgehog, maitake and shiitake

Tastes of umami, nutty, woody and bland
We plucked some straw and cremini
Looked around in shady patches for more
And discovered some fresh porcini

Missing still were the Holy Grail
Precious truffles black, or white
We’d need a pig’s nose to smell them out
Worth their weight in gold, delicious delights

A long day only came to its end
When we came upon tiny, otherwise playful, elves
Resting under fairytale toxic toadstools
We guessed they wanted to keep to themselves

Pickings in hand, we trudged back to camp
Leaving them behind in the dark and damp
I’d trade places with them any day
If I’d have friends who’d listen to what I say