Mushroom People   You’ve seen them — mushroom people, popping up everywhere, sometimes right after the rain and sometimes before — they show up at supper time, or just after breakfast, on planes and on buses — like I said, everywhere. Their mushroom heads are full of mushroom thoughts, their mushroom hearts contain nothing but barren platitudes, slogans. They thrive on rot and smell just like the dirt that gave them birth. No sooner do they appear than they’re gone — departed, melted back into the earth to plot their next eruption, their next con game, their next phony show of wounded feelings. Don’t be bamboozled — they’re not even real.     © Michael Fleming Brattleboro, Vermont August 2023