Author Archives: José Araguz

  少年何所愁， 愁见鬓毛白。 白更何所愁， 愁见日逼迫。 移向东岱居， 配守北邙宅。 何忍出此言， 此言伤老客。   Why is that young man upset? He’s scared to see white hair. Why does white hair spook him? He worries as days rush him on. So, he moves east to … Read More

  智者君抛我， 愚者我抛君。 非愚亦非智， 从此断相闻。 入夜歌明月， 侵晨舞白云。 焉能拱口手， 端坐鬓纷纷。   The wise shun me. I shun the fools. But I’m neither foolish nor wise, so I break off contact. At night, I sing to the bright moon. At daybreak, I … Read More

  Dear furred tongue, dear slack tongue of the coach, dear set piece in the apocryphal lore of a mad philosopher, you were flogged mercilessly at Piazza Carlos Alberto for refusing to pull the angry cabbie’s fare along the Via … Read More

  To hack an ode from a 40-year-old tree, you must spare the lower branches so they can care for roots while the new variety takes hold. Scions dislike the day, so slip gloves over your skin and seal their … Read More

  and the clouds keep coming   and the brook is overflowing   and raindrops keep falling   on my head but it’s no longer   the same tune and I feel like   weeping myself and how   do … Read More

  Solstice dark, four-thirty. Gray rain on the gray cedar shingles, salt box slope. Why do we come home? Dark chocolate Raisinets—long matinee on Scottish monarchs, heavy-handed with the blood and birth. Popcorn sad, diet ice melted. Bitten straw blues: … Read More

  Dry bright. The self’s asymmetry with its surroundings—squirrels deadlifting pinecones heavy with sap. Ponderosa sad. Steak buffet sad. The snakes don’t want to kill you, but will—Erin’s boyfriend calls them danger noodles. I refuse all this glutinous guilt, say … Read More

  Don’t say there is raw fish on the table a boning knife.   The sun is leaving the broken boughs.   With you in the black hole of object consciousness all subjects shrink to nothing.   The heart is … Read More

  There were times we lost track. That’s for sure. One season came with sugar runs for the bees. Another found us coupling at the foot of a mountain like dogs dressed as people. Later, we were almost imitations of … Read More

  No, not a cartoon villain, but the only one left to make champagne fermented in a barrel. Even in California, no one wants to spend the time on such a sparkling wine, which requires bottles rotated to and fro … Read More

  The difference is between seeing and looking. By painting   artificial eyes, I can’t allow people to see, but I can change   how they look. As a child, I owned a retriever with two   different eyes, one … Read More

  Like you, they’d heard the stories. They stood by a founder’s statue in Faculty Glade. Terms— institute, benefit—were tossed at them. Nothing about conquest, or captives. No questions. Attention settled on the slope of the meadow, and when three … Read More