{"id":6563,"date":"2020-07-17T12:30:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-17T11:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/?p=6563"},"modified":"2020-09-07T22:04:05","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T21:04:05","slug":"the-forest-my-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/dumfries-galloway\/the-forest-my-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forest My Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"overgrown<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The forest. My friend these many long days.\u00a0
Happy, I wandered her green dappled ways.\u00a0
My spirits she raised, my soul was reborn. \u00a0
With a lightness of touch her gifts did transform.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Her offering I bore, unseen, and unknown.\u00a0
A spirochaete favour. Its cover now blown.\u00a0
(Non-luetic, I add.\u00a0 Before rumours spread!).\u00a0
It\u2019s Erythema migrans I\u2019m sporting instead.\u00a0
Two lesions at once, less rare than I knew.\u00a0
Coursing my blood this spiral mildew?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To lift the enchantment, wash my blood clean
The four-ring\u00e9d tincture, the doxy-cycline?
Bacteriostatic, broad-spectrum, and cheap. \u00a0
Saviour of many, makes spirochaetes weep.\u00a0
But a substrate of enzymes whose power I\u00a0induce
The weapon is weakened. For me it\u2019s no use\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If four rings won\u2019t cut it, will three rings suffice?
The evidence is sketchy, but suggested by NICE…
Beta lactam it is then, I can walk in the light.\u00a0
And Bacteriocidal, that\u2019s good amiright?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In the darkness of night, I wake chilled to the bone
I didn\u2019t expect it but it\u2019s name is well known
But how to include it, in metre and verse?
Jarisch-Herxheimer, it makes poets curse.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The lesions are larger, but paler this morn,
My chills are now gone, to treatment I\u2019m sworn,
Am-ox-icillin, now culled of its \u201cy\u201d,\u00a0
And adjuvant therapies that appeal to my eye<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Ardbeg, toffee apples, fresh fruit from the bowl
Vitamin D, \u2018cos she said so, and avocado\u00a0
Some yoghourt to balance the microbiome.\u00a0
And coffee of course, while perusing a tome.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The forest. My friend these many long days.\u00a0
Happy, I will wander her green dappled ways.\u00a0
My spirits are raised, my soul is reborn. \u00a0
For better or worse her gifts will transform.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

M<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/figure>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The forest. My friend these many long days.\u00a0 Happy, I wandered her green dappled ways.\u00a0 My spirits she raised, my soul was reborn. \u00a0 With a lightness of touch her gifts did transform.\u00a0 Her offering I bore, unseen, and unknown.\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-6563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dumfries-galloway","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6563"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6746,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6563\/revisions\/6746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.screel.co.uk\/walks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}