Red River Review
Established 1999
saprotrophic nutrition by Alexander M. Koch
the velvet porous brown
underside of Phellinus igniarius
topped by a hard, black surface
with fissures that cross
creating lines of direction
a topography of layered crust
I follow the contours
tracing them with sandpaper fingers
back to the bark of the tree
where the bark splits in vertical segments
creating its own topography
the underside of the fungus
where the brown pores
are minute and closely packed
releases microscopic spores
that gather along the bark
to find an entrance
and begin the process of mycelial growth
that will hasten the tree’s decline
forming a white-rot
within
the fissures within fissures
the forest cycle
of decay
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