Francisco Aragón: California Poets Part 10, Three Poems

Francisco Aragón

April 2nd, 2026

California Poets: Part X

Francisco Aragón

Three Poems

Fair Oaks Street 

                         San Francisco

Wooden façades 

seem to be saying 

You don’t belong 

here anymore 

and the Victorian

that birthed you 

no longer sees 

you—scrawny 

buzz cut tank 

top  brother

sisters grew 

up there too 

a short walk 

from the corner 

grocer’s Moony’s 

his German

Shepherd 

that once 

snarled chased

you home your 

small sticky  

fist releasing

the popsicle

Saint James 

grammar

school as well 

The house sold

—two tony 

condos now

no garage

The street still

courses 

through you

And you took

Dave 

to see it 

decades later 

so you could say

Here is where

Lines to Bob for his 80th

Tom Barber,

your student

at Saint Mary’s

across the bay,

left Field Guide

on his desk

in plain view

that day 

in 1982

after our run

around Lake

Merced—cross 

country 

at Riordan. What’s

that? I said,

pointing at the

leafy cover. Mr.

Barber picked

it up, cracked it

open, began 

reading aloud 

Melón

a bilingual fable

if you slice   

swallow 

a few seeds

you’ll sprout 

maravillas

he whispers 

carrying

the boy to 

and from 

his jardín 

pájaros

and bees 

are the best

enemigos 

escucha 

he instructs

hand cupped 

at his ear 

gesturing

for the child 

to listen too… 

snow-haired 

he unfurls

from inside 

his shirt

the sky 

petals 

float               

down

abre 

la boca 

taste us

swallow

please

     after Francisco X. Alarcón (1954 – 2016)

Author Bio:

A native of San Francisco, California, Francisco Aragón is the son of Nicaraguan immigrants. He is the author of three book of poetry, Puerta del Sol (2005), Glow of Our Sweat (2010), and After Rubén (2020), as well as the translator, into English, of the recently published, Handbook of Foams (2026) by Spanish poet Gerardo Diego. He is the editor of the award-winning anthology, The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (2007). His poems have appeared in over twenty anthologies, most recently in Latino Poetry

(Library of America, 2024). He has read his work widely, including at universities, bookstores, and art galleries, as well as at the Dodge Poetry Festival. He’s a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame, where he teaches and directs Letras Latinas, the literary initiative of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. Otherwise, he resides in Carlsbad, CA with his husband. For more information, visit: http://franciscoaragon.net