Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 4-6
Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.
- The image of toes and noses is used to describe the caps of the mushrooms as they poke their heads above the soil. It's a pretty great image, right? The caps of mushrooms totally look like little noses and toes.
- The fact that the speaker uses human body parts to describe them is starting to make us think that these mushrooms might just represent some kind of people. Hmm—but who?
- The word "loam" is great here because it gives us a sense rich, dank soil that the mushrooms are sprouting from. (Loam is rich soil.)
- "Acquire the air" gives us the feeling that these mushrooms are shoving their way out of the dirt almost gasping for air.
- We're starting to wonder if the people these mushrooms represent have been held down, or suffocated in some way.