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Poetry

Angels

Susannah Sheffer

The snow let us warm it
that day, which is to say
that it allowed our bodies
to influence it, which is sometimes
what bodies do. They change things

so that even afterward
there is (there remains)
that joyful, ruinous imprint.

"Bingata Panel with Chrysanthemums and Snow Circles" Teruyo Shinohara, 20th century
Susannah Sheffer's poetry collections are This Kind of Knowing (Cooper Dillon Books, 2013), Break and Enter (Kelsay Books, 2021), and a new book forthcoming from Cornerstone Press's Portage Poetry Series in early 2025. Her nonfiction books include Fighting for Their Lives: Inside the Experience of Capital Defense Attorneys (Vanderbilt University Press, 2013). She lives in Western Massachusetts.