English Jargon

[Brownlie]

I asked the pharmacist
if she could read the list of Latin compounds 
listed on a Bayer Aspirin Bottle.
Acetylsalicylic Acid was pronounced
with the utmost of precision.
Unconsciously,
I processed connotations:
bits of data that I imagine
 would escape a well trained lexicographer.
Her head was tilted to the side,
rigid dimples formed and rippled on her fleshy cheek,
and her brow raised while her nose was somewhat lowered.
When my brows descended and my jaw dropped lightly,
she looked into my mouth and told me
that it came from willow bark
which was also known as Salix Alba.
I watched her trained tongue move, but couldn't match the
motions with the sound waves she released.
I asked her why they didn't sell the willow bark
in dried out shafts of wood,
and she told me
that
the miracles of shamans had been synthesized
and processed by the Bayer corporation.
In fact, she told me,
Bayer, had itself, refined its status as a purveyor of the Pharmakon.
 Its pamphleteering had become more scrupulous,
and opiates, like laudanum, were now a schedule 2.
I asked if this would stop my blood from ever clotting.
and she told me I could also try red wine.

Later on that night,
the typography of Bayer melted on my tongue.
I wondered what mg meant in my blood stream
and briefly rehearsed my sins as I straightened up in the mirror.
What exactly was medicine?

[just mercedes]

Medicine is whatever makes you feel better. You could just chew on some willow bark, like horses do.

And drink red wine.

I like the sounds of medicine, myself, have tried to write syllabic rhyming poems with ingredients from labels or information pamphlets.

[Brownlie]

Medicine is whatever makes you feel better. You could just chew on some willow bark, like horses do.

And drink red wine.

I like the sounds of medicine, myself, have tried to write syllabic rhyming poems with ingredients from labels or information pamphlets.

There's a patter song about medicine floating on the internet somewhere.

[ChristopherSea]

I enjoyed the pharmacognosy herein. Acetylsalicylic acid is actually the prodrug of the active metabolite, salicylic acid. The salicylic/Salicin name was derived from the Latin word 'Salix,' which is the genus of the willow tree that the analgesic was first isolated from, as you point out. Although aspirin is synthesized from phenol today, Native Americans used willow infusions to treat fever and for pain relief. Great poem brownlie, thanks for sharing it.   /Chris

[ellajam]

I'm really enjoying this one, it brings up so many issues in such a nonchalant way. Here the drug companies are taking the oldest meds that people have been using since before FDA approval was needed, testing them and getting them approved and copywritten so they are the only ones that can sell them and they do so increasing the price a thousand percent.

Willow tea and red wine sound just right.

Great image of the pharmacist as she spoke.

Thanks for posting this, it's a keeper, you might want to consider workshopping it.