[The mosses aren’t helpless] excerpted from Without Them I Am Still A Mother
the mosses aren’t helpless / to make a home for water / they become bisexual / mosses were made for the boundary layer / species have evolved / without gender / without a male in sight / D. scoparium / D. polysetum / D. flagellare / the right mate / passes over the surface like a rock / a warm, moist habitat / interacts in interesting ways with what it touches / heaven knows there are plenty of us / suspended in drought-sleep / a dry moss is incapable of growth / the good news is that there will be offspring / D. montaum / D. fulvum/ D. undulatum / heaven knows there are plenty of us already¹
¹Collaged language from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses.