Edited by Dava Sobel
I was troubled by how easy it was to mistake
one thing for another, as with snakes—
the Scarlet King resembling the Coral
with its arrangement of black
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on yellow, or the harmless Hognose
which is often confused
with a Copperhead. Likewise, mushrooms—
however you might examine the warts
on the umbrella caps or the thin white gills
you could miss some telltale sign—
the partial veil around a stem, say, or
white spores, the Sprouting Amanita
pretending to be a Young Puffball
and then, days later
the lethal symptoms would begin: burning
thirst, blurred vision,
your heartbeat growing
dangerously slow.
We lived like this for more than a year—
unable to tell which
doorknobs were ordinary and which
harbored the virus, afraid to taste the
vivid winter air.