Issue 13: Fire

poetry

travel poetry

Then

Montana Fire Morel – Morchella sextelata

Molly Murray

(Scotland)

When

the fires
sweep the floor

lick the crumbs
gorge the feast.

When

the ribs jut stark
skeletal, a scaffolding

of scorched
tree spines

bristling, a biome
become cemetery.

When

the charcoal
wastescape is

cluttered by
charred roots,

tree stumps lodged
like crooked teeth
.
in the bones
of the forest.

Then.

Death is complete
and rebirth begins

decomposition
becoming creation.

Then.

In the black
mass of detritus

spores

break

loose

sprouting colonies
of embryo bodies.

Then.

Fire morels grow
by honeycomb chambers

kindling breath
in the ashes

heartbeats pulsing
life back to the bones.

Germination and bloom
release and rebirth.

Then.

When

the floor fell
from beneath

my feet, the
walls collapsed,

When

Everything outside
of me fell to pieces

everything inside
of me melted,

questions and footsteps
left in the debris of before

When

I took the trail
under the trees

because –
because –
because –

what else
was left?

No turning back – my eyes
could only see the path ahead.

Then.

I turned a corner
into a dingle

a cluster of morels
growing from the ash.

Then.

a celebration
of saprophytes

brown gnome caps
geometry of lines

creamy trunks gilled
and frilled like petticoats.

Then.

I stood in awe of
life in this wasteland

the whimsy of waste-fed
bodies – pioneers

rebuilding land
from devastation

every fibril
reforesting rubble.

Then.

Download:

Molly Murray

is a

Contributor for Panorama.

Molly Murray is a writer, Creative Flow Coach and RTT Practitioner with more than 15 years of experience in the literary world. As a neurodiverse creative, she brings all the power of her hyper-focus to help creatives make goals and achieve their vision of success with ease and flow. Although Molly is originally from New Orleans and loves the Pacific Northwest, she is now rooted on a beach in Scotland and owns Seahorse Bookstore with her husband. Molly formerly edited the Outdoors Section of Panorama; her poems and stories have appeared in over 30 publications, including Litro, The Curlew, and Third Wednesday. Some of her work can be found in the Oxford Bodleian Library, and one of her poems was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Molly has an MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow, and a Certificate in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford Summer School at Exeter College. You can follow Molly on Instagram: @exlibrismollymurray.