I came back from the woods
festooned with the threads
and tatters of spider webs.
The moth that hovered
outside my door
this morning, an eye
on each wing, was gone;
later the tabby would tear off
one wing, watch closely
as what remained went fluttering
across the road. Now
two deer have paused
on their way up the hill.
They meet my eyes, but no:
they can see that the world
still sticks to me. I am not
far enough gone.
Susanna Lang divides her time between Chicago and Uzès, France. Her most recent chapbook, Like This, is available from Unsolicited Books, and her e-chapbook, Among Other Stones: Conversations with Yves Bonnefoy, (Mudlark: An Electronic Journal of Poetry & Poetics) was published in 2021. Her third full-length collection of poems, Travel Notes from the River Styx, was published in 2017 by Terrapin Books; My Soul Has No Corners, her translation of poems by Souad Labbize, is forthcoming this year from Diálogos. Her poems, translations and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in such publications as The Common, december magazine, Asymptote, Tupelo Quarterly, American Life in Poetry, Rhino Reviews, Mayday and The Slowdown. Her translations of poetry by Yves Bonnefoy include Words in Stone and The Origin of Language, and she is now working with Souad Labbize and Hélène Dorion on new translations. More information available at www.susannalang.com.