There are nettles in the wood

You said to let them sting me

and I let them, I let them

I let them sting me

I let them

because I was alone in the wood 

but for the threaded needle of desire

—

you said

Leah Zani is a poet and anthropologist writing on violence and repair. They are the author of Bomb Children (2019), a hybrid work of poetry and ethnography, and Strike Patterns (2022), a novel. Zani is the poetry editor at Anthropology and Humanism. Follow them at @leah_zani