Drawing Elaborate Boxes

after the intrepid fencers had
spent weeks in the labor of scooping
out their dance floor from the body
of the giant fungus

after their visions
and delirium had subsided

after they had placed
the light as air
balsa wood doric column
in one corner
and used it as a world tree
or a stand for fragrant flowers
standing fitfully in a jug
that mimicked a head

only then
did they draw instead
the vivid rectangle
where their battle
would commence

the foil
a stylus
for the inscription
of ritual space
in fungus

dojo fungus