A forest of redwoods,
being milled for quick money
guarded by robots programmed to send
laser beams at anything that moved.
He and new friends dodged the lasers
and hid in the trees.
Eventually, the corporation responsible for milling
the thousands of years of life the redwoods brought
as a quick return to the market
set up a compound of concrete to train
human beings in the skill of killing
and enforcing someone's idea of law and order.
Jonas found the answer in the trees.
There were mushrooms growing in the canopy
that made the remaining trees strong
and could eat through the human walls
the corporation had created,
could eat through the desire to dull human beings
into the likeness of machines.
They dispersed the spores through the fire of robots
through the fire of bullets
and invaded the base.
The spores set to work.
Their escape, in an army transport plane,
was victory, as they watched
the whole place
be reclaimed
by the mushrooms, by the trees.
