Silybum marianum Milk Thistle
	NOTE: Milk thistle is striking as a plant, myth, and medicine. The name was derived from the white veins on the plant which were attributed to a fallen drop of the Virgin Mary’s breast milk.  Because I have friends affected by the current epidemic of Hepatitis C, this plant is important to me. It helps the liver recover from exposure to viruses or toxins. It can even be used to counteract the deadly Amanita mushroom if treatment is initiated quickly enough.
				BACK

White veins on green leaves.
               As if the Virgin Mary
accidentally gave suck to a thistle.

Prickly,
the idea that spilled breast milk
from the mother of the son of God
might nourish us
                       this way.

Pliny said,
it’s not worth the effort to boil.

We’re lazy.
And we make mistakes.
Share needles or become a nurse
               and get stuck.

Even a tattoo
can leave us contemplating God
and the viral load.

Talk about bile.
Between poverty and helplessness,
        faith gets jaundiced.

Once we thought we’d live forever,
life a perpetual red blossom.

Now we look for solace but pick
an amanita mushroom
                       or a bottle.
Things go to seed.

Here is asylum.
               As if the Virgin Mary
accidentally gave suck to a thistle.