Nettles: Cecile Forman

April 29, 2020, Kate Belew With Cecile Forman (San Francisco, California)

I have nettles on the brain today

A whole crown of them, itching to
Craft an attention to the earth
with the tiny spikes of their bright leaves

and in my dreams, I crack concrete

drawing a green web of impervious growth

with my careful fingers, a kind of magic 

trick of nature called photosynthesis 

and the sun loves me, and the sun wants

everything to glow and grow and 

I do too. Nettles, their sting, everything.