ho bisogno di niente

By: Nanya Jhingran

ho bisogno di niente

for every quarter salvaged from the backs of drawers - 

hands rummaging in search, unaided by sight

pricked          now by stray needle, 

                         now by edges of unpaid bills

• spare me a thought.

i, who sit ruler over these piles of unwashed dishes

making stew from scraps of yesterday’s dinner

do not wince! 

                     in my land, these count for riches

cuisine fashioned from the spoils of our own neglect

In Tuscany to wish you luck they say 

in bocca al lupo!

in the mouth of the wolf  

in the mouth of the wolf  your ambitions and mine

would prove a worthy feast

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Nanya Jhingran is in Seattle by way of Lucknow, India where she is working on a PhD in Literature at the University of Washington. She is dedicated to mining, curating, and honoring those words and desires that are deemed disposable, unworthy, by colonialism and capitalism.