...Then the caterpillar got down off the mushroom, and crawled away in the grass, merely remarking as it went, `One side will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you grow shorter.'
'One side of WHAT? The other side of WHAT?' thought Alice to herself. 'Of the mushroom,' said the Caterpillar, just as if she had asked it aloud; and in another moment it was out of sight.
Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute, trying to make out which were the two sides of it; and as it was perfectly round, she found this a very difficult question. However, at last she stretched her arms round it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.
—Lewis Carroll
Wild Mushroom Omelette
There was something about the word "wild"
on the menu that first caught my attention.
The images rendered were expressed in sexual colors—
the reds, the magentas, the oranges, the plums.
The world explodes with these hues of light.
The beating of ocean, forest, musical rhythms
floating to ears unaccustomed to true sounds.
I was Alice in the looking glass searching
the unfamiliar world of deep inner thoughts.
Dreams pasted in memory, images previously unseen.
Philosybin journeys taken in my youth to places
far different than here..., a quiet table on a rainy
Canadian night, watching raindrops slowly drip,
down the window pane, life from the sky.
I sit, alone, remembering the undeniable magic
of the wild mushroom omelette.
Photo Credit: Wild Mushrooms, Ann Reed, 2007 Digital Photo, 9x12.