The mushrooms are women (not just women, but all the oppressed), in this poem.

“Diet on water, on crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking. Little or nothing. So many of us!
So many of us!” This line is referring to all the women who live in the shadows, not being able to have any power or leadership. In “The Friday Everything Changed,” the boys were always the ones who got to carry the water bucket, not the girls. The poem and the story are both inspiring change and nothing is going to happen overnight, but slowly more and more change is happening.