Susanna "Suz" Spearman (they/she) is a queer, Appalachian poet originally from South Carolina. They are an MFA student at EKU’s Bluegrass Writers Studio with plans to graduate this summer (2024). They live in central Kentucky with their partner, their four cats, and senior chihuahua. They have four poems in Still: The Journal’s 23-24 winter edition, and was the 2023 winner of the BGWS Emerging Writer Award for Poetry (selected by Bernard Clay). They have also been published in The Winchester Sun and have a piece that has been accepted for the 2024 edition of Yearling Journal.
transubstantiation
I’m reminded every spring
ashes to ashes, dust to dust
but ash has no vulva, no mouth
has no brown eyes, no teeth
I explain this to my lover as I lay her
down, beneath my trembling flesh
for her touch, not yours, God
would I gladly burn
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