Nicole Brossard

TRANS. BY CYNTHIA HOGUE & SYLVAIN GALLAIS

Cities wHere My Face Returns

cities with hope in the crosshairs of sobs
do we think that dawn is a word
or have we said by accident tengo sueño
this very morning in a city in America
to smile sap beyond all schedules
I breathe slowly
a life of frescoed words:
women wrapped in the joy of wandering and infinity

Cynthia Hogue’s most recent collections are Revenance (2014) and In June the Labyrinth (2017), both from Red Hen Press. Her third co-translation is Nicole Brossard’s Lointaines (Omnidawn, 2022). Among her honors are two NEA Fellowships, a Fulbright fellowship, and the Witter Bynner Translation Fellowship at the Santa Fe Art Institute. She lives in Tucson.