Flower for the Day 9-5-25 Odds and Ends

Well the draught has turned most everything to fall colors- fall is coming.

My cosmos (Asterales coreopsideae) here are some others did poorly this year. I did have a few but not many.

But here are some others which have shown up on the dining room table. The cone flowers,

brown-eyed susans, and especially the Rose of Sharon are still plentiful.

And this time of year the fungi begin to flourish. Can anyone name this beauty?

The Fungus, the Fruit, and the Apex Predator

The mushroom is not the fungus, the mushroom
is the fruit. And when the wolves
came back, it was like they put a hat
on empty space and the rest
of the person reassembled piece
by piece underneath—
beavers, aspen, beetles,
wolverines, lynx. As children we feel
everything: seam of a sock,
a tag. We practice dullness, practice
adapting stupidly.
So let the apex predator of us
reenter, snarling, let it tear the throat out
of whatever's stealing our repose,
let it leave that thing out
half-eaten, a snack
for us to share with our friends
before we go home to our regenerated
habitats. I guess what I'm saying is,
eat the rich. I guess what I'm saying is,
chase villains into the sea. I guess
what I'm saying is, wouldn't it be great
to figure out which wolf we needed, which wolf
was missing, which wolf was hunted down
too soon by ignorant park rangers and which
wolf whose return, like a furry, murderous,
plural Messiah, would save us?

 Audra Puchalski