Laurène Southe's poem "First Generation" carries the kind of weight that settles into your chest long after you've read the last line. Originally published in German, it was translated into English by Literatur und Kritik Nr. 607/608, released in September 2026 through Otto Müller Verlag Salzburg.
The poem opens with a single, striking image: "I walked the earth so you could feel its stomach rumble, witness the collapse of dead stars at sea." In just one breath, Southe captures the quiet, enormous sacrifice that moves through generations, the body of a parent becoming the ground a child learns to stand on.
There is something deeply familiar here for anyone who has watched someone they love carry a world they never asked to carry. Southe doesn't explain it. She just shows it, and that restraint is exactly what makes it land.
Originally published by Brittle Paper.