I S R A E L . P A L E S T I N E

In Israel there were the angled Anopheles, black darts picked out on white ceilings. They cause hot red swellings that shift the shape of limbs.

In Palestine the small stone-coloured Culex are impossible to see in tungsten light, and only betray their presence with the taut whine of their wings. Pin-pricked constellations are traced nightly as if arms and ankles have been run through with a sewing machine to stitch them back beneath the sweaty sheets.