DEC 10, a brief saga (garden intruders): stinkhorn (red-basket) fungus

  

 Authors' Note: Clathrus ruber is a startlingly shaped species of saprophytic fungus that resembles an orange plastic toy ball. Its interior surfaces are coated with a foul-smelling slime that attracts flies, which then disperse the fungal spores. The characteristic fetid odor of the fungus resembles that of rotting meat. Other common names include latticed stinkhorn, red cage fungus, and basket stinkhorn. 

Readers, you are fortunate to have all our poetic comments on creatures (animal and vegetable), devoted to subverting your gardening plans. To view this collection our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense", click HERE! You can also review illustrated verses about orderly garden inhabitants by proceeding to 'Poetry Praising the Charleston Garden' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

for SINGABLE version:

Plastic bags wrap flyers thrown on drive.
Perfect size so spores won't survive.
Enclose the stench
As garden you trench,
For now, bits of joy derive. 

Orangey nerf-ball, named for stench,
Watering eyes; teeth want to clench. 
Swarms of flies
I do despise,
And could put off a swain or wench. 

For the purpose of this blog, a 'brief saga' is defined as a poem, usually narrative, but occasionally expository, that tell its story in at least 11 lines. Most commonly, the format involves three stanzas in limerick form, constituting a single submission to the online humor site 'Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format are involved in a collaborative editing process that may take several weeks to over a year. 

 There are now over 40 of these lengthier bits of doggerel featured at OEDILF in Giorgio's "Author's Showcase". The OEDILF number for each accepted multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. We have been blog-publishing these poetic adventures here monthly since January 2020. And the good news is that almost all limerick-derived verses can be se to music!

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (November 2023 ), back up to 'creep, crept and variants'.

To access all of our 'brief sagas' by the year of their creation, click on your selection below.

2020
2021
2022
2023.