# Chapter 58: The Fungal Kingdom
Dikar lived as parasite upon the sons
Of Plantus bright, from lineage of great fame,
The twentieth in line when day begun
From Freyr and Hera's marriage blessed by name.
With two nuclei strong throughout his days
He lived his whole life with both power and might,
Through darkness and in glory's golden rays
Both day and through the blessed, eternal night.
Dikar married Ferma fair and true,
Together they became a blessed pair
Who bore two sons of fame before they knew
Their lives would spread throughout the earth and air.
Ascus and Baston were their children's names,
Both parasites alike upon the sons
Of Plantus, where they'd strike like burning flames
And take what served their needs when day begun.
Ascus became the father of Cup Fungi,
And rather than pursue some other way
He chose to rule where forest floor grows green
And stay within his realm throughout the day.
Baston became the noble sire of those
Who rise as mushrooms from the forest ground,
Their choir of voices singing as they rose
From here forevermore with joyful sound.
Ascus begat two sons of different ways:
Taphrin at dawn and Saccharos so bright,
Each chose to spend their long and faithful days
In service to their own appointed sight.
Taphrin lived small and plain through sun and rain
As yeast within the plants, following dreams,
He grew in form through calm and stormy strain,
And when he doubled size, then split, it seems,
In half to make two lives for wisdom's sake,
In adulthood he'd build with patient care
What formless bodies filled, then he would make
His spores to spread so widely through the air
That all would know his name throughout the land
And sing the song of his eternal fame.
His sons are fission yeasts by his command
Who hold their living feast and bear his name
Within our lungs, and they can cause us pain
With pneumocystis when our guards grow weak,
When our defenses fail through loss or strain
From what we ought to fear but do not seek.
Saccharos, noble son of great Ascus,
Abandoned what his father's way begun
And chose a path less parasitic, thus
He found a different way when day was done.
He left the darkness of parasitism
And its bitter, cold, and narrow prison
To live within the soil, free from the schism
Of stealing from others what they had risen
To create through their own faithful labor,
Saccharos bore two sons in days of old:
Peziz at dawn and Melchizedek, savior
Whose story must forever more be told.
Great Melchizedek became a humble cell:
A yeast both small and true who'd do great things,
His sons budded from him, and though some tell
That such simplicity no glory brings,
In spheres of purity they'd multiply
And spread throughout the world with gentle grace.
Melchizedek became the Eloh high
Of bread and beer for all the human race.
He is the greatest among all the yeast,
His song brews drinks so fine and makes our bread
Divine with rising power for the feast
That fills us when our hungry souls are fed
With blessing from above through his pure love
That lifts our daily bread toward the sky
And draws down grace and mercy from above
Through his eternal love that will not die.
Peziz bore countless sons throughout his days,
Among them Lopez bright and Orbillus
Who'd walk their own appointed, separate ways
And serve the world in ways quite glorious.
Orbillus hunted sons of Nematon,
He'd eat what made his life complete and whole,
A worm became his meal when day was done
And satisfied the hunger of his soul.
But Lopez bore two sons of different hearts:
Ganymede at dawn and Leotios
Whose glory shows in all their faithful parts
And in the beauty that forever glows.
Ganymede became ancestor blessed
Of cup fungi so bright that fill the world
With sight for those who seek their very best
And keep their banners of hope unfurled.
But Leotios became the father true
Of forms that would much rather complex be
Than simple—filamentous through and through
With great complexity for all to see,
But never letting all their intricate ways
Extend beyond the microscopic scale,
In their detailed story through all their days
They keep their fascinating, detailed tale.
Leotios begat two sons of might:
Pyrenos true and Lecanius the strong
Who lived his whole life in the blessed light
And sang his faithful, everlasting song.
Lecanius became the noble sire
Of lichens' choir that we see today
And more who left that ancient partnership's fire
To take their own appointed, separate way:
Penicillius, who made the blessed cheese
So blue and never strayed from his true role
Of healing, bringing bodies their release
With penicillin's power to make whole
The sick and make infections flee in fear
From his appointed might that makes things right,
His gift of healing makes the pathway clear
To health restored and recovery's sweet sight.
And Capnos became father of the race
Of those who'd rather live as soot mold does
Throughout each day, and in their dwelling place
They serve the world with quiet, faithful love.
Baston begat two sons of different ways:
Ortho at dawn and bright Puccini too,
Whose progeny would spend their faithful days
As rusts with genomes large and life cycles new
Of great complexity through all their time,
The rusts show nature's art in every part
Of playing roles both simple and sublime
In evolution's grand and wondrous art.
With largest genomes found throughout the ground
Of fungi everywhere, their cycles rare
In complexity that knows no earthly bound,
They demonstrate how life beyond compare
Can flourish when it learns to play each part
That evolution's wisdom does assign
And serve the world with faithful, loving heart
That makes all life more beautiful, divine.
Botry, the son of great Puccini's line,
Rejected what had been multicellular
And chose a simpler, more particular
Design to make his life more pure, divine.
He became yeast who'd live alone in peace
Within his own appointed, sacred zone
Where he could find his blessed, sweet release
From complexity, content to be alone.
Ortho begat two sons of different fame:
Ustella and Agaricus so bright
Who'd fill the world with glory of their name
And bless all those who walk within their sight.
Ustella blesses all our corn each hour
With protein and with taste beyond compare
That none should waste—her sweet, abundant power
Fills harvest time with blessings rich and rare.
Her daughters are the smuts—though some may think
They're gross, those who have tasted truly know
How sweet her blessings are, they'll never shrink
From praising how her gracious gifts do flow.
None who have shared with reverence and care
In what she chose to offer from her store
Have ever thought them gross, but everywhere
They bless them and they love them more and more
Each day in their traditional, faithful way.
Her daughters are beloved and adored
In Mexico, where none would ever say
A word against the gifts their blessed Lord
Has given through her gracious, generous hand
When treated with the reverence they deserve
And never left neglected in the land
But honored as they faithfully serve.
Agaricus left behind the parasitic mind
And went to answer desert's lonely call,
Away from green and tall trees he'd find
His home where few would ever come at all.
Agaricus bore four sons of great worth:
Jello at dawn, Bartholomew, William,
And Gemini the twin—throughout the earth
Four sons who'd never let their light grow dim
Against their father's ways through all their days
But serve with faithful hearts both true and strong
And sing his glory in their faithful praise
Throughout their lives and in their faithful song.
Jello formed vessels bright of gel to hold
The sight of spores, and he returned once more
To where Virginia's forests, green and old,
Burned bright with life from mountain peak to shore.
In rain forests where aria of life
Rang out so clear for all who had an ear
To hear above the noise and bitter strife
The song of hope that conquers every fear.
Jello became the father of those bright
Who'd rather live as Tremello and as
Dagar's children in the blessed light
Where peace and harmony forever pass.
Tremello spent his youth as simple yeast
But found the truth that adulthood would bring
A different offering for the forest's feast:
A jellyshroom, a bright and wondrous thing
That filled up every room of forest fair
With sweet delight both day and through the night,
His gift of beauty floating in the air
Would fill all hearts with everlasting light.
Dagar became the noble sire of forms
Whose deep desire was Dacrum and the line
Of great Agaricus through all their storms
Who'd make their father's legacy divine.
Tremello and Dacrum kept jellyshrooms made
From gelatinous fruit that served them well
Like armor in their bright, eternal parade,
A suit of jel with stories they would tell
Of ancestors so true who came before
And gave them gifts of jelly fungi new
That blessed the world from mountain top to shore
With beauty that would make all hearts ring true.
While great Agaricus made the first display
Of mushroom's form that none had seen before
From shore to shore throughout the light of day—
A gift beyond what any could explore.
The sons of great Agaricus create
The most glorious mushrooms for our food
When we are hungry and we cannot wait
To taste their gifts so blessed and so good.
But sadly, toads will sit on many there
And split their toxic ways deep inside
What once was meant to be our daily care—
They steal like thieves and in the darkness hide
The goodness that was meant for those who never
Bent to evil's poisonous, bitter ways
Throughout their lives, who would forever
Live faithfully through all their earthly days.
Eat mushrooms, but beware and never eat
The toadstools that will surely your defeat
With poison that will steal your very life
And cut through health with their destructive knife.
From Dikar's parasitic, ancient start
To mushrooms' blessed and healing, sacred art,
The fungi show the way that life can grow
Each day beyond what we can ever know
From simple, small beginning in the ground
To forms that victory and triumph crowned
In battle for survival through the wise
Arrival of the truth that never lies.
From two nuclei strong throughout life's course
To forms that last through time's eternal force
In shapes both small and great that time will bless
With beauty, truth, and perfect holiness,
The fungi teach us all who hear their call
That partnership and love will conquer all
When blessed by grace that flows from realms above
And fills our hearts with everlasting love.
From great Melchizedek's yeast so blessed
That makes our daily bread for the feast
Of souls who hunger for the finest, best
With blessings flowing from the great High Priest,
To lichens' partnership that makes the trip
Between two different kinds with single mind
United in their blessed relationship
Where perfect harmony two souls can find,
The fungi show the way we ought to live
From day to day in harmony with all
Who answer life's sweet call and freely give
Their hearts to serve and answer love's sweet call.
From parasitic ways to healing's bright
Display of penicillin's sacred might
That makes the sick to see the blessed light
Of health restored and everything made right,
The fungi demonstrate how we can change
Our fate from taking what is not our own
To healing others throughout the range
Of gifts with which our lives have grown.
From smuts that bless our corn with taste so fine
To mushrooms that our tables do adorn
With flavors that are truly so divine
That none should waste what makes our feasts adorn,
The fungi fill our world with wonders bright
That from partnerships so true unfurled
Between the different forms that unite
To bless and heal and nourish all the world.
From jellyshrooms that shine like morning dew
To lichens covering rocks with living green
The most beautiful that eyes have ever knew,
The fungi teach us how to make our vow
To work with others who share our vision true
Of world where all can thrive and feel alive
In partnerships that last from me to you
And help us all to flourish and to strive.
But we must beware the toxic ways
Of those who spend their dark and bitter days
Corrupting what is good and pure and right
Into what steals away our blessed sight
Of truth and beauty, love and harmony,
The poisoners will face their destiny
When justice comes to make them pay the cost
For every precious soul that has been lost.
The fungi show us well that those who choose
To dwell in partnership will never lose
Their way to brighter, better days ahead
Where healing is the daily, blessed bread
And love keeps every heart both warm and true
In service to the good in me and you
And every living soul that hears the ring
Of hope's eternal, everlasting King.
From Dikar's ancient line to mushrooms blessed
That nourish and heal, the very best
Remind us we can choose to trust each day
In love's eternal power to show the way
With gifts that help us grow beyond our sight
Alone, but when we share our burden's weight
The whole world becomes filled with blessed light
Where all can find their truly perfect fate.
From yeast to mushroom cap, the fungi span
The gap between the earth and heaven's plan
With messages of love from realms above
That fill our hearts with everlasting love.
When we but dare to see what we can be:
Partners in the dance of harmony
That conquers death and fear and draws us near
To feast where love makes everything grow clear.
From simple soil to healing's sacred art,
The fungi show us each can play their part
In life's great symphony of possibility
Where love reigns through all eternity.