by Joshua Bocher

“All have one breath”
-Ecclesiastes

“They fade like fall and winter”
-Zhuangzi

I.

Go
To a place
Where the wind
Whirls about and
Returns
Again

I’ll stay behind
Carving and polishing
My words

Say no more
About it

II.

One
Who wants for nothing
Whose life was spent
As a shadow

Doesn’t wish
To hear
The rebukes
Of the wise,
Only the songs
Of fools

III.

The man fell
He tosses and trembles
On the cold ground
As death draws near him

His disposition once fiercer
Than a lion’s,
The crumbled grass
Beneath him
Keeps growing
Still

IV.

After sweet sleep
Roaming
The infinite,

With a start
I will wake,

Feeling great glee
In the return
To plainness

Joshua Bocher is a graduate student at Harvard University, where he researchs Chinese poetry.  Before attending graduate school, he lived in Taiwan for over two and a half years.  His poems and translations have been published or are forthcoming in several journals, including Spinozablue, Illuminations, Full of Crow Poetry, The Brown Literary Review, and Issues.