Tuesday Poem: Nettles

Nettles

For so long they contained all

that was evil, fear comprehensible

as a bully, a threat

to push me deep into the stinging

heart of a thicket –

I hacked a risky path.

And while dreams sifted through green nights

nettles sprang up, impossibly –

silvery undersides welting my ankles,

a poison assuaged with fern sap:

thin veil of defense

only a child could believe.

© T. Clear

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