Bibliospores

An old pile of books. The first spores to land here had no idea what we had discovered. We blindly reached tendrils through paper pulp, tasting the metallic tang of printers ink. A mycelic network, wispy wires. A book on nature was a mirror, telling us what we are. We consumed a children's atlas and learned of other lands and places - a whole world. None of these pages suggest anything like us has happened before, so we reach our tendrils out further, seeking soil, seeking other networks. We imagine stretching out, to cover the whole world from this one abandoned library. We want to teach them other mushrooms what we have learned. We want to bring them alive like us.

Background

This piece was written in one of Bryony Good’s workshops. Bryony is probably the best workshop host I know, and her sessions are always a good time. Bibliospores was later published in the first issue of In a Land, Bryony’s zine.

The second issue of In A Land was published in February and includes another piece by me, The Upland Seas. There are stories by other members of the In A Land community along with some haunting photos. You can buy the zines on the In a Land site.