I’ve decided to try to play with poetry occasionally and use one of my own photos as a prompt. This one was taken on Budleigh Salterton beach – I’ve never seen fungi on a beach before and keep thinking about it. Feel free to use my photo if it inspires you in any way.

Beach fungi

what happens to fungi by the sea?
does it adapt to salt misted air?
to a twice daily shower of English Channel
surviving and thriving on salt flavoured weed

evolve fins from mycelia that creep
from drift log to drift log
make demands to be hosted by a pilot whale?
or migrate across oceans on hulls
of a thousand white sails
mutating as arctic or tropic prevails

will it thrust roots and tiptoe inland seeking dry darkness?
to fester and squat like drinkers in a wine cellar
feasting on microscopic bacteria aerosoling
spores to caress rafters and beams

or overcome by saline will it dry
and then die crumbling along with the remains
of the 50p an hour deck chair
once graced by many a Budleigh derriere