Generation 5 (2240-)
become silence-listeners of grounded beginnings
the weavers of sharing
decomposit symbiosis
underground collective land that’s carefully interdependent
from sorrows grows a continuum of broken rhizomatic humdrum
softness of decay and communications
we thread each footfall slow
mushroom teaches species interfacing—
changing the struggle with partnership underneath the earth
our patient root-like support nurtures change
space holding great life and appeased community
fungarian hope webs
infinite blurred worlds
This speculative fiction was created in the context of the Biosocial Ethics course (2023) at Malmö University. Based on Donna Haraway's Camille Stories, it spans several generations into the future to explore issues of extractivism, the right to land, and ways of "staying with the trouble" in an effort to bring about a multispecies society. To create this poem, Alice, Merle, Christophe, and Anne each wrote a short text in which they imagined what the Mycelocene would be like. They then cut up their texts and collaboratively pieced together this poem.
Written Christophe Berbeć, Merle Emrich, Alice Wästberg, and Anne Leupen.
Photo by Merle Emrich.
Cover photo created by AI.