Day 42: Today Walk Barefoot On Grass

Instructions: Grass was well-known amongst Indian shamans for its soothing anti-ulcerative properties. When a papoose was sickly, the shaman would lay him down on a grass bank and sprinkle him wiht dew from the bark of a Great Conifer Tree, for 5 days and 5 nights (at least). Today grass is widely available of course in parks, gardens and the like. The current theory is that the leaves contain herbacinium, a derivative of morphine, which rubs off on the fibrous nerves of our bare feet, gets into the bloodstream and slows down our heart rate by up to 14%, thus relaxing us. Indeed, poets have long known this, as is conclusively demonstrated by the following:

Leaves of Grass

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we
may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Walt Whitman