Wood-ear

(Auricularia heimuer)

         "... the soul does not perceive the external or internal 
physical construction of herbs and roots, but it intuitively 
perceives at once their Signatum.” ~ Paracelsus


I remember daily
nosebleeds for three years
as a child: pressure of a cold cloth 
on one pinched nostril, metallic taste 
sliding down the back of my throat.

What cured me 
of that and other ailments—
rashes from too much heat, 
too much cold, dairy, 
shellfish, eggs? 

Pressing my cheek
to the wall of my bedroom, I swear 
I could hear cold ribbons of water 
in the sink,  someone neatly stacking
the mismatched plates. 
 
Though Galen believed in the soul, 
he also wrote about the body and its four 
humors—phlegm, blood, yellow bile, black 
bile. Too much of one or another tips 
the corpus into imbalance.