This is a poem about recreating the “body of spring” through a kind of metaphorical defrosting, a shivering that revives the spine of spring and in its movement, offers new life.

Enveloppé d’écharpe,

Ce trou dans le coeur

se déchire et récite;

comment ce souffle retenu -

comment ces orteils mauves -

cette peau de pouce fissurée -

les plantes rugueuses des pieds -

cette pensée éparpillée aux vents -

ces genoux de chenille -

ce rayon d’or glacé -

comment ces demi-frémissements montants

restituent-ils au printemps sa colonne corporale?

Cynthia T. Hahn, Professor of French at Lake Forest College, is the author of two volumes of poetry. The first, Outside-In-Sideout (Finishing Line Press, 2011), is a collection of emotional landscapes that centers on healing the self and the other through the process of grieving. The second, Co-ïncidences (Paris: alfAbarre, 2014) is a bilingual volume in French and English, illustrated by Parisian artist Monique Loubet, that includes meditations on life’s journey in three parts: “Ascente/Ascent”, “Envolée/In Flight” and “Atterrissages/Landings”.