Poem: ‘So how does it work then, this acupuncture?’

‘So how does it work then,
this acupuncture?’ people often ask me.
‘God knows!’ I used to say, kind of as a joke
(didn’t go down too well).

But if you wait, keep quiet a bit,
they’ll usually carry on,
answer the question for you:
‘It’s the nerves, isn’t it?’

Some’ve heard it releases ‘endolphins’
– I’ve a soft spot for them, who doesn’t? –
frisking in benevolent on a microscopic flood,
enlightening our pulse with sparkly clicks and giggles;

others’ll name-drop ‘dopamine’
or ‘serotonin levels’, even
‘activation of the cerebral cortex
or something’, etcetera.

Maybe it’s all of the above and more but
does it really matter?
How does music work?                                                      You listen.
How does water quench your thirst?                               You drink.

Dominic lives at the edge of a village in Kent with his wife, Pippa Sequeira. They graduated from the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine (CICM) back in 2000 and run a thriving clinic in central Canterbury.