The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Mycelium
by Amanda Worthington

My self is mycelium

Infinite, Underground

Concealed by the palatable earth above

Eager tendrils reaching unseen

Seeking the decay that flows rich and sweet

From the broken world above

These shadows nebula-thick

Form the murky walls of my nursery

I hunger for the things of the light

But I do not contemplate the sun that makes them grow

Until the coming of the veil

It is like something substantial has been worn away

Opalescent beams break the calm like fingers

Tangled up in the long strands of my nether-hair

And I too begin to fade

They say monsters hide in lairs

I think they walk in the blatant day

Until death undoes them

I only feed on mistakes once they’re made

And fermenting where they fall

Without me ruin would overrun this place

Without me there is no life

The light burns where it hits

But it cannot burn this truth away

The intruder undoes the best parts of me

Until I am too weak even to feed.

And I feel the feast of bodies mere feet away

That is how the real end is

Not nothingness but abundance

I am too diminished to access

And if any traveler from another world should find this place and ask why

I hope they will at least have the decency to bury the bodies

Here next to me. In the dark

Where they belong.

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Fiction © Copyright Amanda Worthington.
Image courtesy of Pixabay