Sugar Astrology

Poem in a Zodiac: Tree at the Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, NY

by Shari Zollinger
Illustrations by Holli Zollinger

I recently visited the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, NY. I spent a whole afternoon looking at what this provocative Japanese sculptor left behind including massive abstract stone, quiet monoliths, a garden, and a tree. This season's astrology is a single poem, parsed between signs and inspired by that tree in the garden. It can be read in whole-poem form or in separate, austere, private messages per astrological sign—a poem nestled inside a Zodiac.

ARIES

March 21 to April 19

Tread carefully because if you’re lazy you’ll call it ineffable and be done.

TAURUS

April 20 to May 20

And, if you’re not vigilant, you’ll let the New Age proclaim divine.

GEMINI

May 21 to June 21

There will be the way the leaves caught wind as you talked to Emily on a wooden bench,

CANCER

June 22 to July 22

its roots spy-hopping through gray rock.

LEO

July 23 to August 22

There will be a drop or two of rain.

VIRGO

August 23 to September 23

You’ll reach too hard toward the scene, the way you used to do,

LIBRA

September 24 to October 22

when everything had meaning, and just as you used to, you’ll call for language or belief.

SCORPIO

October 23 to November 21

You’ll reference the Rilke tree.

SAGITTARIUS

November 22 to December 21

You’ll tell Matthew about thresholds in urban nature.

CAPRICORN

December 22 to January 19

But soon you’ll see nothing special happened so hard it threw you back on yourself.

AQUARIUS

January 20 to February 18

And this time, upon this buoyant irregularity, with language unattainable

PISCES

February 19 to March 20

you’ll call up Rilke again, and at least thank him for trying.

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Tread carefully because if you’re lazy you’ll call it ineffable and be done.

And, if you’re not vigilant, you’ll let the New Age proclaim divine.