We are all leeches now, trying to work out what is walking towards us | Helen Sullivan

One sucker is precariously attached to some flimsy reality - a wet leaf, a slippery rock - the other one pointed at the future

Imagine if your Wikipedia page described you as a segmented or parasitic worm" with two head segments" and suckers at both ends". You might turn to the Bible, instead - here is the Book of Proverbs on leeches: The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough."

The daughters are the leech's words (though some interpret the daughters as the suckers): Give, give." Within this damp, humid, leech-infested jungle is the surprisingly sweet idea of the words you say as daughters you have given birth to.