from galaxy limited café

José Eugenio Sánchez

czeslaw milosz gets off the train at fuengirola

what do I have in common with your prairies
where the taciturn beasts chewed grass before the flood
never lifting their heads

there was nothing on earth that I wanted
as if I existed only for the perishing of land and men

there is no witchcraft in my words
I speak silent as a cloud
or tree

I am part of a system of polarized multicolored crystal spheres
that furl and unfurl the thread of phosphorescent liquids
held in place thanks to gravity
and the combustion of certain gases

I know that the ocean unleashed its tired tongues at the edge of the sea
and the lighthouse is lit
for me          for the shore
each in turn





ray tom's daring heroes: vidal sassoon gloria vanderbil sergio valente foretell the name jordache (op cit levi strauss & co)

I was against the chemical permutation that breaks the body down
and inevitably carries it into death
like the grenades of fragmentation
on pay per view
I am a seal on a glacier waiting for the club

I go out to watch the afternoon die wearing a scarf
that flutters like a bend in the road
where there are clouds that move the way you move
(clouds that love me)
and look like semen against your lips

: everything is music while the music lasts
and the silence—which is never heard—
dies with a little noise

I'm up against the wall
(I don't want to hear the screaming flames the hum of the guns)
: the wind will hurl itself into the void
the moon will hang itself on the horizon


translated from the Spanish by Anna Rosenwong

Read the original in Spanish

José Eugenio Sánchez is an acclaimed poet and performer, and the author of numerous poetry collections, including Physical graffiti, La felicidad es una pistola caliente, and galaxy limited café, which was a finalist for the 2010 Jaime Gil de Biedma International Poetry Prize. He calls himself an "underclown," and his aggressively playful work eagerly engages both pop and high culture with irreverence and insight. Originally from Guadalajara, Sánchez lives and writes in Monterrey, Mexico.

Anna Rosenwong is a translator, poet, editor, and educator. Her translation of Rocío Cerón's Diorama won the 2015 Best Translated Book Award for poetry. Her other publications include José Eugenio Sánchez's Suite Prelude a/H1N1 and the forthcoming Climax with Double Cheese, as well as an original collection of poetry, By Way of Explanation. She is the translation editor of Drunken Boat. Her literary and scholarly work has been featured in World Literature Today, The Kenyon Review, Translation Studies, The St. Petersburg Review, Pool, and elsewhere.