\u201cAll things are poisons, and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.\u201d
\n\u2013Paracelsus<\/p>\n
During rituals of divination, <\/p>\n To dilate the pupils of their eyes <\/p>\n Our ancestors felt more closely <\/p>\n Digitalis from foxglove, <\/p>\n For the stomach spasms <\/p>\n Derived from salicin Our ancestors felt more closely \/ than we the embrace \/ of science and mystery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6814,"template":"","categories":[9,49,119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6813","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-literary-features","category-poetry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nMayan sorcerers and healers
\ninduced risky hallucinations
\nwith Brugmansia candida,<\/em>
\nangel\u2019s trumpet. The poison
\nin its white, waxy flowers
\nand dark green leaves,
\ningested or absorbed through
\nthe body\u2019s mucous membranes,
\ncauses convulsions, paralysis,
\ncoma, and death.<\/p>\n
\nand bring a flush to their cheeks,
\nfashionable ladies in medieval Europe
\ndrank juice pressed from the berries
\nand leaves of Atropa belladonna,<\/em>
\nthe deadly nightshade.
\nTo enhance their beauty,
\nthey risked their lives with a poison
\nused since antiquity to alter potions
\nand tip arrows with lethal results.<\/p>\n
\nthan we the embrace
\nof science and mystery.
\nWe are still looking
\nfor the boundary.
\nChemicals crossing
\nthe blood-brain barrier
\ncreate effects in the brain
\nthat achieve results in the body,
\naltering perceptions
\nof pleasure and pain.
\nReliever of illness
\nor harbinger of death
\nis a matter of degree.<\/p>\n
\nlily of the valley, and oleander
\nstrengthens the heart\u2019s contractions
\nwhile causing blurred and double vision
\nand hallucinations.
\nTaxol from the bark of the Pacific yew
\ndestroys cancers of the breast
\nand ovaries but harms the liver.
\nAlthough it induces nausea,
\nvincristine, an alkaloid
\nfrom Madagascar periwinkle,
\nis the reason why most children
\nwith leukemia now survive.<\/p>\n
\nI suffered as a child,
\nI was prescribed a daily dose
\nof a chalky green medicine
\ncontaining belladonna alkaloids
\nand phenobarbital
\nto prevent nausea and relax me.<\/p>\n
\nin willow bark and meadowsweet,
\naspirin reduces inflammation,
\neases headache, and lowers fever.
\nYears ago, my great-aunt, sick of life,
\nswallowed the entire contents
\nof a bottle and bled to death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"