SageGreenJournal.org

voices out of the West, mostly poetry, personal to planetary

( When we were young . . . )

David Feela

Arriola, Colorado

Retired teacher, poet, free-lance writer, & workshop instructor.

David's chapbook,Thought Experiments(Maverick Press), won the Southwest Poet Series. His first full length poetry collection,The Home Atlas(WordTech Editions, 2009), is currently available through the publisher & online.

Shameless

David Feela

Page 178 of Exotic Mushrooms

serves up Plate 146, and on this plate

rests Phallus impudicus, a steamy

sprout of a mushroom that looks like, well…

if you know Latin I need say no more.

Plate 146 also announces, Not Edible,

a warning included for the soft-headed,

those who demand everything and want it

all spelled out. I might have penciled in

my own words but I tried that once

in the third grade before a stiff ruler

bruised my knuckles, wielded by a nun—

Sister Gabriel—who guarded the pure,

white page, archangel at the gates of desire.

By fifth grade our textbooks contained

not only hastily written words but sketches too,

and some of them surprising for their

anatomical correctness. Fifth graders knew

so much more than exams could assess,

but opening our books back then

we had no way to understand character or

the dark soil from which it so suddenly grew.

SageGreenJournal.org is a non-commercial project, an online anthology, to share a poetic vision of the land we love.

We have no permanent office although we do have deep roots in western Colorado.

You can write us at Box 160 Norwood CO 81423, or better yet, email us, by clicking 

or, if you use a webmail system, write to hello (at) sagegreenjournal.org