White Sands National Park, New Mexico

Twenty-one thousand years ago
people walked through this place, leaving

the marks of their bare feet like a few
words from a longer story.

Here a mother, arms
grown tired, set down her child.

Other children played nearby,
their toes pointing in all directions—

wherever their family was headed,
the children were in no hurry to get there.

Though the sand has long preserved their steps
the fossils are eroding now,

so soft they could be cut with a butter knife
says an archeologist. Like a child’s

sand castle melting into the waves, or a few
words spoken in a low voice, half heard,
half imagined.

Susanna Lang divides her time between Chicago and Uzès, France. Her most recent chapbook, Like This, was released in 2023 (Unsolicited Books), along with her translations of poems by Souad Labbize, My Soul Has No Corners (Diálogos Books). Her third full-length collection of poems, Travel Notes from the River Styx, was published in 2017 by Terrapin Books. Her work appears in such publications as The Common, december magazine, Asymptote, American Life in Poetry, Mayday, Rhino Reviews and The Slowdown.  More information available at www.susannalang.com.