Susanna Lang ​
​

Testimony

I have to breathe between
the words

as if a rib had
cracked

              but not my rib

as if the roof had blown
away as if the floor
collapsed

              but not in my house

as if a tongue had been
torn out dirt stuffed
inside a mouth

              but not
              mine

as if
as if we could open
the locks
release the mounting storm
water

dissolve
whatever blocks the air
passages

hers or mine
theirs
yours

as if it were
that simple

              can I get an amen
              though I don’t
              ​believe

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Susanna Lang divides her time between Chicago and Uzès, France. Her most recent chapbook, Like This, is available from Unsolicited Books. Her e-chapbook, Among Other Stones: Conversations with Yves Bonnefoy, (Mudlark: An Electronic Journal of Poetry & Poetics) and her translation of Baalbek by Nohad Salameh (Atelier du Grand Tétras) were both published in 2021. Her third full-length collection of poems, Travel Notes from the River Styx, was published in 2017 by Terrapin Books. Her poems, translations and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in such publications as The Common, december magazine, Asymptote, American Life in Poetry, Rhino Reviews, Calyx 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.