{"id":857,"date":"2010-10-21T19:07:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-21T19:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=857"},"modified":"2010-10-21T19:07:31","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T19:07:31","slug":"tom-warner-is-picking-mushrooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/tom-warner-is-picking-mushrooms\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Warner is picking mushrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under <\/span>Natural History<\/span>

every mushroom-picking pocket book I find<\/span>
contains some kind of disclaimer.<\/span>

Collecting mushrooms to eat is dangerous.<\/span>
No field guide is ever comprehensive.<\/span>

So I bought two, and slung them in a rattan basket.<\/span>
The kind of basket some of the girls at school<\/span>

would nurse from Home Ec. in the crook of their elbows.<\/span>
The kind of girls, like Suzanne Galloway, with thick tights<\/span>

who sometimes carried violins in rigid cases<\/span>
for lunchtime sessions in the music block.<\/span>

All welcome.<\/span>
Open. Optional. Twelve o\u2019clock.<\/span>

Once, Brett Coupe pulled the heavy doors open wide enough<\/span>
for us to peer in at girls standing without their blazers,<\/span>

violins trapped beneath their chins like telephones or windy babies,<\/span>
and at their feet were cases filled with satin and crushed velvet.<\/span>

I kick my boots clean outside and leave them at the door.<\/span>
On the kitchen table I drop a basket full of mushrooms,<\/span>

some red as blood, some purple and crinkly-edged<\/span>
some squishy cups like orange water lilies.<\/span>

I\u2019m pretty sure this one\u2019s an Amethyst Deceiver.<\/span>
You ask me why I\u2019d take that risk, but I can\u2019t really answer.<\/span>



*Tom Warner<\/span> has previously received an Eric Gregory Award and a Faber New Poets Award. In 2009 he was Poet-in-residence to Newark, Nottinghamshire. A pamphlet<\/a> of his work, in which this poem can be found, was published by Faber in 2010.<\/span>
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