Food remedies found in Nursing Acute Infectious Fevers by George Paul M.D. (1906)
toast water
for when a jaybird flies too close to your son’s wee head.
beef tea
if your skin turns grey from a long day of slide and ski.
rice water
because you left a good-bye note written on paper made of mummies.
meat jelly
may soothe your cracked cuticles and will vaporize your dog’s wet nose.
wine whey
clears your eye-whites.
luap
(soda crackers, hot milk, egg, salt, sugar, nutmeg) There is no good reason for this.
oyster milk
is thought to have a soothing effect on your veined temples.
milk punch
in your mouth for daemon possession. Taken any time of day.
junket
(milk, sugar, rennet) primarily used for random musings, foreboding utterances.
farina gruel
sweetens a very sour breath, even if the afflicted is a known gossip, general wrong-doer,
hobnobber, or gives acerbic compliments. Be wary of the jaguars and various monkeys that
may trail you after ingesting. You can find them slinking down hallways, doors, staircases,
and sometimes behind curtains. They cannot be trusted near children or the geriatric.
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the NYTimes Bestselling book of nature essays, World of Wonders, and four books of poetry, most recently, Oceanic. Awards for her writing include Guggenheim and NEA fellowships. She is the poetry editor of The Sierra Club’s SIERRA magazine and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi.
Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich