More Flowers

I bring him Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod and chicory. I pile clover flowers and knapweed before him. More, more, more. The plants keep coming. The earth keeps giving. I lay the blossoms at my child’s feet. This too is medicine. This is devotion.

I have a lot of shame about this. Popping another couple painkillers, I think, I should be taking white willow, which contains a pain-relieving compound called salicin, similar to aspirin. I should be tending the four incisions on my belly with a salve of comfrey and plantain, to help the skin heal faster. Because I do truly believe in the healing ... See more