Earth Day 2022: Only So Many Chances

Today is Earth Day, a perfect opportunity to rethink our conventional paradigms that are dooming the planet’s livability for human beings. Today I would like to explore briefly several ideas alluded to in yesterday’s post. The first is Dr. María Elvira Ríos’ exploration of ganying, Dependent Origination in Óscar Carrera’s writing, and Jordi Solé Ollé’s exploration […]

Replaced

Most of my water escaped long ago too,and which one of us was reallydesigned to withstand the pressure? Slowly filtered through solid rock,the remains are all that remains:    pyrite and calcite and Uranium.Armored fish patrolling the depths,consuming the soft, fleshy parts, anddisappearing into the crystal lattice. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. […]

I Searched Back

Becoming many-celledfrom whitish to pale tan,consuming the soft crystalof my confiscated skin,the alien searched me.Like a probe sent into the outerhemispheres of my consciousness. I searched back.I wondered intoits yucca-sized eyes,and the room became calm, a cream-colored scent of smokerising as the holy spirit does for Baptistson Sunday mornings when they really need it. George Cassidy Payne […]

Something Rather Than Nothing

Before slavery,oceans swept awayshadowsof sand pyramids. Before peace,there was just volcanicash on the seabeds- the color of Confederategray, like the eyes of a lost husky. Before the masters of war,there were border walls madeof barren clouds, ribbed and lifeless- above a million stillborn valleys. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work […]